![]() ITS SO EASY (PART 3)! When John McCain made wild misstatements, Stephanopoulos praised his straight talk:
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2005 ITS SO EASY (PART 3): Disinforming younger voters is a seminal part of the strategy. Social Security wont be there for you: Young voters have heard the claim for years (although it makes no sense at all), and Bush pushed the line again and again during last weeks town hall meetings (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 2/8/05). And yes, the campaign is deliberate and scripted. On Sunday, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) did Late Edition. He knew he should pimp the line too: MCCONNELL (2/6/05): Four years from now, the baby-boomers start retiring. Young people think they're more likely to see a UFO than they are a Social Security check.This time, the UFOs were back! Meanwhile, in that mornings Washington Post, twenty-something Laura Thomas offered a version of the same gonzo claim. People my age are as likely to believe in Social Security as they are in Santa Claus, the young, know-nothing music scribe proclaimed. But then, why wouldnt young voters like Thomas be disinformed about this matter? Theyve heard this claim, unrebutted, for years. Indeed, on that mornings Fox News Sunday, young Americans saw Dick Cheney reciting the phony claim too: CHENEY (2/6/05): If we do nothing, then the system's going to go belly up. It's going to go broke. It won't be there for today's younger generation, so that when kids 20 years old now, starting out in the workforce, get to be 65, they know full well that Social Security won't be there for them because it is not then properly funded.Social Security wont be there for them! Lets speak frankly: Cheney was baldly dissembling, as usual. But as usual, his statement went unrebutted. His host, Chris Wallace, heard what his guest said. And politely, he stared into air. Is it really surprising when people like Thomas believe that Cheneys claim must be true? Major journalists simply refuse to challenge this scripted misstatement. But just how polite will big scribes be when Bushs men set out to deceive you? Consider George Stephanopoulos world-class fawning on Sundays This Week. The weak fellows guest was John McCain. Try to believe—just try to believe—that a major host actually said it: STEPHANOPOULOS (2/6/05): Okay, let's turn to Social Security. Two straight-talk questions right at the top...Good God! Two straight-talk questions? Knowing McCains favorite term of self-praise, Stephanopoulos started by pimping it for him! Result? Thirty seconds later, the ol straight-talker was bull-sh*tting right in Georges face: MCCAIN (2/8/05): I haven't seen the specific outlines, but I'm certainly with [Bush] in principle. I think that for us to wait 'til 2042 when it's completely bankrupt would be crazy. I think in 2018 if we're going to wait 'til even then, then were going to be faced with some stark choices, none of which are acceptable...Say what? No, McCain didnt read the script about UFOs. But there is no projection according to which SS will be completely bankrupt in 2042—or at any other point, for that matter. (According to the CBO, the system will pay full promised benefits until the year 2052.) And what could the famous straight-talker mean when he said there will be no acceptable choices as early as 2018? According to the gloomy projections of the SS trustees, thats the year when payroll taxes start to bring in slightly less than SS needs to pay in benefits. But the systems trust fund will make up the difference until the middle of the century. Heres an acceptable choice for 2018: Congress can simply pay back the money it borrowed from Social Security, as Congress said—as John McCain said—it would do back when the money was borrowed. Of course, as readers of the liberal web know, McCain has been making these oddball statements ever since last weeks State of the Union Address. As Media Matters reported last week, the ol straight-talker tossed a howler at NBCs Brian Williams after the speech, saying that we could wait until 15 years from now when there's no money at all left in the Social Security trust fund. (According to the CBO, the trust fund expires in 2052.) And as we noted here at THE HOWLER, McCain wildly misstated on that evenings Hardball. saying that Social Security will have zero money in 2042. (Left alone, the system will never have zero money. According to the CBO, it will be paying full benefits in the year 2042. The gloomy trustees say 73 percent.) But so what? Williams and Matthews are both good boys; neither said a word about McCains statements. And four days later, as Stephanopoulos pandered, the situation kept going downhill. Try to believe that this occurred even after McCains first misstatements: STEPHANOPOULOS: Final straight-talk questions: What kind of benefit cuts should future retirees expect?Good God! Even after McCains original misstatements, Stephanopoulos was still pimping his straight-talker slogan for him. And McCain responded with more bizarre claims—about the scary year 2018, and about the system going bankrupt over a short period of time. Do you see why its easy to disinform voters with journalists like Stephanopoulos around? Try to believe that we saw what we did—that we saw a major TV host pimping a major pols favorite slogan, pretending he was getting straight talk even as his straight-talking guest was making weird misstatements. But then, when McConnell spoke of UFOs, Wolf Blitzer knew to stare into air, and Wallace let Cheney say, for the ten thousandth time, that Social Security wont be there for them. Its easy to disinform voters like Thomas with store-bought slackers like this in charge. Its easy to treat her cohort like rubes with Stephanopoulos reading off your best slogans. Social Security wont be there for them! For decades, the bogus claim has lay at the heart of a scripted disinformation campaign. Tomorrow, well review the way the mainstream press has averted its gaze from this scripted deceptionand then well ask if the liberal web has done enough to combat it. TOMORROW: Press to Bush—its OK to fib. FRIDAY: HOWLER HISTORY! John McCains endless follies! DEM BOYS ARE EASY: And yes, its easy to disinform voters if you have these Democrats as your opponents. On Sundays Meet the Press, Ted Kennedy still couldnt get the simplest facts right: RUSSERT (2//6/05): We have a situation where the number on people in Social Security is going to double. People, rather than spending 15 months, are going to spend 15 years. In 2018, the Social Security trust fund will begin to draw down, and in 2042 run a deficit, according to the trustees of the fund. What is your plan? What will you do? If the president's wrong, what would you do specifically to fix Social Security?Did you ever think youd see the day when someone had worse information than Russert? After his silly 15 months versus 15 years intro, Russerts figures were selective, but accurate. (Why selective? Because he only cited the gloomy estimate from the SS trustees.) But Kennedy still couldnt get his facts straight. By this appearance, he at least understood that he shouldnt treat the trustees projection as established fact, as he and other Democratic senators had routinely been doing (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 2/4/05). But when he countered with the CBO estimate, he couldnt get the figures right. The year 2049 plays no role in any of the basic projections, and the CBO has adjusted its 81 percent estimate; it now says that SS will be able to pay 78 percent of promised benefits after the year 2052. As we told you last week: Its easy for Bush to disinform voters when Senators Kerry, Kennedy and Lincoln go on TV using the figures which cut against their partys position. This Sunday, Kennedy knew he should cite a more realistic estimate—but he couldnt get his data straight when he did. In any other major field, would work like this ever be tolerated? So how about a little straight talk? If Kennedy cant get these simple facts straight, he should drag his fat *ss off the air. |