The ominous threat of a government shutdown dominated the news last
week. The media weren't wrong to cover it as a dramatic debate, but all
of the hype and horror looked a little bizarre by the weekend - like
wide-eyed, screaming hurricane warnings on the Weather Channel followed
by a sunny calm.
When the deal was struck, the TV pundits quickly moved on to how
there were sharper, harsher battles ahead over much larger chunks of
federal spending. That's true. But in hindsight, the entire shutdown
fight looks by comparison like a war over who was splitting the pizza
delivery bill....tip. The $38 billion in spending cuts is a bit of an
achievement when Obama didn't want to cut anything - but it's still the
drop in the proverbial $3.7 trillion bucket.
Instead of fighting over who's the "winner" in this small skirmish, let's just focus on a few obnoxious shutdown spins.
1. Obama the adult vs. Tea Party brats. CBS reporter Chip Reid
summed this up helpfully: "One thing the White House is hoping to do is
have the President appear like an adult breaking up a childish battle."
CNN analyst Gloria Borger "Politically, what he's trying to do is be
the grown-up."
This is the media trying to help the president triangulate out of
owning any of this deficit mess. This is about spending for the fiscal
year that began last October,
more than six months ago when the Democrats controlled everything. Back
then, the supposed "grown-up" Obama didn't lift a finger to stop
kicking the can with continuing resolutions. He was too busy blaming
Republicans for driving the country into a "ditch."
Then after the GOP took over the House in January, Obama refused to
participate in negotiations. In the closing days, the Reids and Borgers
pretended Obama was not a partisan leader who would stand with the
Democrats. The media didn't want him to be an architect of gridlock,
just an aggrieved party who was the only "adult" in the room.
2.
The Democrats were right to confront "extremists." On this score, it
was impossible to distinguish reporters from liberal ideologues. NBC's
Matt Lauer seemed to be making a rhetorical ice cream cone for Chuck
Schumer: "When you look at some of the things the Tea Party and others
on the far right are asking for - no funding for Planned Parenthood, no
funding for climate control, public broadcasting - does it seem to you,
Senator, that this is less about a fiscal debate or an economic policy
debate, and they are making an ideological stand here?"
Schumer replied like a pleased teacher to his student: "That's
exactly right, Matt. You've hit the nail on the head!....They're saying
no, not because they care about the deficit, but they have an ideology
just to get rid of all government."
Of course Schumer would agree. These are his talking
points! But look at that labeling. Fact: far more people in American
identify themselves with the Tea Party than they do either party. But
Lauer sees them as "far right."
No wonder Lauer failed to confront Schumer with the leaked tape
where Schumer instructed fellow Democrats on the talking points. "I
always use the word extreme," he said. "That is what the caucus
instructed me to use this week." Apparently, the Democratic caucus also
instructs supposedly nonpartisan journalists.
3. Parading victims in advance. It's fair for journalists to wonder
which government employees or services would be affected in a
government shutdown. But just like 1995 and 1996, reporters sure can
shovel a thick layer of hype on it. Take ABC's Jake Tapper, who warned
"The shutdown will stop new funding for medical research and hope for
desperate patients," including a trial for a new cancer drug that
could help children. Then there were sixth-graders from a school in
Massachusetts who'd traveled to Washington to see museums. A girl
complained, "The government is mean." A boy added, "It's not really
fair they get to choose how and when stuff doesn't open and stuff."
At least during the Clinton years, the media waited until the government actually shut down
before the parade of victims really began, with uninspected Christmas
toys and federal employees who suddenly couldn't afford a Christmas
tree.
Network reporters think these are just "facts," and emotional
reactions to facts. But the fact in 2011 is no shutdown happened.
What's left is the lingering notion that the "victims" are just
dramatic players in a political narrative, helpful in threatening
Republicans with what spin they'll see if they don't compromise.
As the fiscal debate turns to extending the debt limit and Paul
Ryan's budget proposal, media consumers should have a sinking feeling
that more of these emotion-laden pleas are being manufactured on an
assembly line to keep anything, anything from being cut.
