This morning, I got a little emotional about the rock-solid work that my Daily News colleagues perform under duress, but there's still a lot of shoddy journalism out there and I still intend to call it out. Like this piece in the Chicago Tribune (also bankrupt...it's a trend!), which commits one of the worst sins of modern American news reporting, conflating that inane prattling of the Beltway blowhards for what real citizens think. The subject is CNBC ranter Rick Santelli, who supposedly tapped into anger that people have for low-income (and often duped) homebuyers that didn't exist for bailed-out banking billionaires.
Here's the part that blew my mind:
Yet Santelli's rant, the points he raised and the White House response were the talk of the Sunday-morning TV roundtables, an acknowledgment that he had given voice to many unhappy with where the bailout seems headed.
"About this populist backlash, I think they're worried [at the White House], and rightly so," National Public Radio's Mara Liasson said on Fox Broadcasting's " Fox News Sunday." "In this kind of a situation, you want to be dishing out the populism if you're the president. You don't want to be on the receiving end."
"[A]n acknowledgement that he had given voice to many..." Such as? If there are so many everyday people angry that the federal government wants to aid homeowners, let's hear from them! Yet none are quoted in the story, only a Beltway journalist babbling on the conservative, frequently Obama-bashing FNC. That's your populist revolt. You can't have a populist vote unless there's, you know, "people."
So let's ask the American people...survey says!
Washington Post-ABC News poll, 1,001 U.S. adults, conducted Feb. 19-22:
21. On another economic issue, would you support or oppose the federal government using 75 billion dollars to provide refinancing assistance to homeowners to help them avoid foreclosure on their mortgages? Do you feel that way strongly or somewhat?
-------- Support -------- ------- Oppose -------- No
NET Strongly Somewhat NET Somewhat Strongly opinion
2/22/09 64 37 27 35 12 23 2
I don't think it's much of a populist revolt when it's backed by just 35 percent of
the American people. But what do I know, I'm only a journalist.
The question can preordain the answer. Not enough detail in the question. The answer would have been significantly different had the question been asked containing the following: "....avoid foreclosure if they bought beyond their means, to "flip" the property, or if it exceeded 95% of the home's value?" We are only talking about 8% of US mortgages are in trouble and most of them should have never been granted. Why should those who have been responsible in their choices pay for those who took loans that never had a chance of being repaid?Sure there were banks that pushed the limits that the federal regulators were requiring, but no one held a gun to anybody's head.I am not unsympathetic to those that want their own piece of the American dream. It can be a hard struggle. Been there. However it not my responsibility to bailout the irresponsible.For the record, I am not in favor of it for the car companies. Chapter 11 and reorganize. Keep the government out of the car business. As for a WaPo and ABC poll..yeah, they aren't left leaning! Most of the folks with the bad mortgages are NOT victims.— georgel
WRONG, georgel! When I was in my early 20s, I wanted a car I couldn't afford. Guess what" The bank wouldn't give me the loan! Simple common sense! Contrary to what you say, many of these people ARE victims. Traditionally banks had employed mature judgement on loans; they obviously haven't lived up to this responsibility today, and worse still, much worse still, there has been A LOT of downright predatory lending, as has been exposed over and over again in media stories. So PLEASE get with the program, georgel, get on the side of ordinary, suffering people! And Will Bunch, thanks for what you said. Rick Santelli makes me sick. He's proved himself to be a worthless jerk. And Mara Liasson (along with Juan Williams) ought to quit NPR and work full time with Fox News (where they seem to be very comfortable). But above all, thanks---I was very offended by Santelli's coarse stupidity and was waiting to read something like what you said. Right on!— Jim Weidman- Not actually journalism not worth saving, not because it is worth saving but because it is not actually journalism, any more than any other "Ministry of Truth" propaganda from Kremlin, or other Orwellian source is actually journalism. The Internet may be undercutting the readership of the small newspaper but big money was gobbling them up for years, and honest reporting always needed somebody to pay for the ink and hotel bills. Now the ink is cheap enough that anyone can publish but there is no money available for the hotel bills. People can still choose how much they want to sell out their principals, it is just that the gray line between over indulged whore and underpaid amateur is getting a lot sharper every year, leaving no place for a reasonably paid professional. As for the Mortgages, these are the new non-existent Welfare Queens. Somebody to wave the racist shirt about while hiding the fact that the whole bunch of them could be bought out for pennies on the dollar and the profits split between the taxpayer and the person who needs one affordable home. Instead they will make sure the Gang Of Pirates get to keep all the loot and then blame the victim, and howl with outrage that anyone would think another outcome a reasonable possibility.— FreeDem
Comment removed.- Well, if banks hadn't loaned to people who had no business owning a home, Barney Frank would have called them racist. Neither here nor there - we cannot undo the past. How are we going to get out of this recession? That's what I'm looking for in President Obama's speech tonight. Hope and change, even if you save up your change and take it to TD Bank to be counted, get you only so far.— BlairW
- Comment removed.
- Yeah didderbops. Didn't you know that it's only people of color who are getting their homes foreclosed on?— Damgoodbodies
- Polls are probably the most worthless and corrupt means to measure items in a disagreement. I am sure the Washington Post and ABS News have a compelte list of poeople who get called for certain polls and a list of peole who get polled for others. Last night I saw a poll that indicated approximately 75-percent of the people polled trust the governmnet to get us out of this mess. About 90 percent of the peopel there now are the ones who created it, but they have the magic button to get us out. And the finger pointing comment for the frequent Obama bashing on FNC has a three fingers pointing back at MSNBC for thier half-assed reporting of tingling feelings going down my leg when Obama speaks, Chris Matthews -- that is somewhat acceptable journalism that is not partial in anyway of form. And please another really weak, stupid arguemnt is playing the race card every 5 minutes in this country. Can everyone in this country just grow up for once.— reddog44
It's also shoddy journalism to substitute polls for truth and assume that whatever the poll favors is the right thing to do. It's also bad journalism pretend a poll is actual news. It's also bad to hang your hat on poll numbers, then ignore any poll that doesn't tell you what you want to hear. Even worse is to assume that the concerns 35 percent of the population is somehow insignificant and should be dismissed. I mean, African Americans are 15% of the population, should we just shoo them away when they have an issue important to their community?— jmc- Of course the minority shouldn't be ignored. But should we call this country a Black Nation between African American's make up 15%? That is what Will Bunch is reacting to: blowhards on Fox and Santelli claiming that "most people" are agst the housing bailout. Fox is even claiming that the American people want a revolution agst our president lol. Republicans are trying to reclaim their power and they'll do it by any means possible, even twisting and configuring the truth to support their mission - destroy Obama. Who cares that the country has been on a downward spiral for years and this country elected Obama to fix it. Then again, they also refuse to acknowledge the most important poll - the one taken November 4, 2008.— domenica
- It's worth noting that both parties have to agree to the mortgage, not just the homebuyer.— SteveMG
- Comment removed.
- He said "I just wiped my rear end", which scholars have concluded means that when the simpleton rules the far hemisphere, his glorious achievements will be secretly sabatoged by the anti-Christ and he will take power personally in the form of a black, non-American muslim radical who will borrow bad money instead of the good money that the previous glorious leader borrowed.— SteveMG
- I'm sure I can find a poll, Will, that would prove that the majority agree with Santelli. It's all in the wording and the intent of the pollsters. Meanwhile, Obama claims that no undeserving types (such as flippers) would get mortgage help, and the next day his idiot press spokesman Gibbs is saying the opposite. Doesn't exact inspire confidence - Obama says one thing and then his administration turns around and does the opposite. Even some of his fans at MSNBC are ripping into him now, but you've got the pom-poms back out instead of acting like a reporter and examining the story critically against both sides. Which is a primary reason the media is going down the toilet - you forgot what your main job is. To find the news, not spin it. You are little different than the Beltway chattering class you decry here.— db_cooper
- db if you could find a poll, then do it. I bet that poll wouldn't stand up to the slightest scrutiny. If you haven't noticed by now, opinion polling is a pretty well defined science. There aren't too many cases where the results fall much outside the Marge Inovera.— SteveMG
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About Will Bunch
Will's new book: Learn about it here and purchase it here.
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
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