WaPo So Worried About Deficit It Wants to Increase Pentagon Budget by Half
Three days after its editorial fretting about the deficit, the Washington Post applauded Trump’s proposal to increase military spending by 50%.
Vox’s Student Loan ‘Expert’ Is Paid by Debt Collectors
A Vox piece insisted that “student debt forgiveness isn’t happening”–but didn’t disclose the author’s ties to the student loan industry.
Shankar Narayan on Facial Misrecognition, Braxton Brewington on Student Debt Abolition
Facial recognition, a technology that has been proven wrong, has been deemed harmful, in principle and in practice, for years now.
For Media, Giving in to Debt Limit Blackmail Was a Triumph of Bipartisanship
Media legitimizing the GOP’s economic hostage-taking allowed the party to stick with it without fear of massive political blowback.
WSJ Worries Debt Limit Fight Could Jeopardize Military Contractors’ Profits
The Wall Street Journal hand-wrings about the area of the discretionary budget that appears least likely to face cuts.
NYT Fearmongers Over Debt as GOP Holds Economy Hostage
The New York Times has been engaged in outright fearmongering over the size of the US federal debt over the past several months.
ABC/WaPo Poll Creates Illusion of Public Opinion on Debt Ceiling
The poll cannot accurately represent public views on the debt ceiling, but reflects the manipulation built into the questionnaire design.
‘The Debt Ceiling Is a Completely Pointless Contrivance’
“What they really want out of all this is to basically hold the American economy hostage, so that they can extort…key spending cuts.”
Chris Lehmann on Debt Ceiling Myths, Kyle Wiens on Right to Repair’s Moment
Republican brinkmanship could devastate millions of people—along with the harm to public understanding of what’s actually going on.
Media Summon Inflation Specter to Oppose Student Debt Forgiveness
Corporate media outlets have thrown everything at Biden’s debt relief plan, trying to convince their audience there’s not enough to go around.
‘Student Debt Hurts the Economy and Cancellation Will Improve Lives’
“We like to say that we are demanding abolition or cancellation, not forgiveness, because we have nothing to be sorry for.”
Braxton Brewington on Student Loan Debt, Andy Marra on Trans Youth Rights
Is what we call “higher” education an individual investment or a public good? The way news media talk about it could be decisive.
‘Puerto Rico Hasn’t Had the Opportunity to Develop Its Own Economic Future’
“There’s good momentum to pave a better future, and one that actually has Puerto Ricans in the driver’s seat.”
Natalia Renta on Puerto Rico Debt Deal
A judge has approved a debt restructuring deal for Puerto Rico and the deal’s architects are saying it means a “new day” for the territory.
Extra! Soundbites March 2021
The real test is not whether corporate media were able to condemn a president’s seditious acts, but whether they go back to business as usual.
Critics of Canceling Student Debt Aren’t Afraid It Won’t Work—They’re Afraid It Will
Canceling student debt doesn’t negate other policies that would benefit blue-collar workers or the unemployed.
Learning All the Wrong Lessons From the 2008 Financial Crisis
When reporters and editorial contributors to the New York Times reiterate the notion that government spending is anathema, or that we need to be worrying about debt even as we fight the coronavirus, we are setting ourselves up for a rerun of the response to the global financial crisis,
‘The US Has Played With Puerto Rico’s Economy for the Last 122 Years’
“For people to actually understand that we need to audit the debt, that we need to understand the debt, and that we shouldn’t be paying any debt that was created illegally, has been a struggle in itself.”
‘The People With the Least Resources Are Now Shouldering the Greatest Burden’
“I don’t argue that we simply need to equalize how individuals finance their education…. We need to be changing the system of education, not simply individual access.”
Can’t Afford a Vacation? Get Another Credit Card!
Under greater time pressure than ever, media resort to rewriting or copying and pasting press releases, then branding them as news. At the same time, advertorials—paid advertisements presented as news—are becoming an increasingly common way for media to increase their income.
