On Wisconsin!: The Mediagasm

How best to cover something like the ongoing dispute over Wisconsin's "budget repair" bill? How about you just pick a side and set your nuance aflame? That's been the essence of the cable news coverage thus far. A lot of yelling? Check. Juvenile name-calling? Got it.

I have appreciated the occasional pushback on the notion that public employees need to start making some "shared sacrifice," a call that typically comes from people who have shared nothing and sacrificed even less. David Brooks pulled this stunt on the pages of the New York Times, and was appropriately smacked around by the American Prospect's Jamelle Bouie. But that's not going to stop your rich pundit class from getting all pious about the need for the middle class to pare down and give more. (That was basically the whole point of TARP, by the way.)

As Ezra Klein points out, "Wisconsin public-sector workers face an annual compensation penalty of 11%. Adjusting for the slightly fewer hours worked per week on average, these public workers still face a compensation penalty of 5% for choosing to work in the public sector." And Abe Sauer's done a lot of careful dot-connecting, demonstrating that the way Governor Walker pits various factions of have-nots against one another is a feature, not a bug, of the overall bill.

Those are some good examples of deep and responsible reportage. On the teevee, though? Have some tortured comparisons to Cairo! Oh lord, have they been hot and heavy. It calls to mind what Jon Stewart said earlier this week:

They're not the same in any f*cking way, shape, or form, at all. At all. Not at all. This is the same as people in the Middle East throwing over years of dictatorship? Or is that just the last story you saw on the news. You know, the protests in Wisconsin remind me of the struggles of Charlie Sheen, bravely fighting his addiction.

Actually, have you seen how closely they've been following the Charlie Sheen story on, say, MSNBC THE PLACE FOR POLITICS? We'll have these comparisons yet, I promise you!

At any rate, please enjoy this mashup of representative cable teevee coverage of this important issue.

Video by Sam Wilkes and Hunter Stuart.

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Comments

[spark340]

11:55 PM on 03/02/2011

I watched this loon Ed Schultz the other day on MSNBC . How many more media outlets can this guy bring into bankruptcy ? It was comical listening to his diatribe against the innocent people of Wisconsin left holding the bill for the left's banquet of corruption in never funding the massive costs associated with unfair union negotiations in which the same politicians receiving union money through dues and fees make agreements with the same union negotiators funding the political left . They could not fund these huge and inordinate demands so they sign off on a pyramid of unfunded benefits that will continue to bankrupt us for decades to come . This obvious conflict of interest is bringing state and municipal governments to their budgetary ends all over the country except where these relationships are not allowed . Which is the law under the Labor Relations Act of 1935 .

Ed Schultz continued his ridiculous show speaking how great and committed a teacher his mother was . I think he has described her as a teacher , a social worker , and a warm and fuzzy kitty . Wow ! Whatever the rant of the day requires . Then it continued to depict as victims several New Jersey teachers who of course deliver the worst educational outcomes on the planet for an average of 65000 a year while working 9 months of the year and retire with full benefits and near full salary for life .

[smaffy]

07:55 PM on 02/28/2011

Tax cuts for the Rich; Pay cuts for the Working Stiff.

[spark340]

12:04 AM on 03/03/2011

Solid Gold Public Employees Benefit Plans paid for through a series of ponzi schemes perpetrated against the citizens through a system based on conflict of interest payoff for contract union negotiations while the citizens continue to see their jobs leave their states due to the fiscal crisis with which they are left to contend .

Robbing the poor to pay the rich fatcat union bosses and corrupt politicians .

[alumcreek]

08:26 PM on 02/27/2011

Putting America's peasants in their rightful place as the disenfranchised of this nation is precisely what the right wing is trying to accomplish.

Do not believe any of their lies about anything since they lack the ability to be truthful.

[itiswhatitmaybe]

07:24 PM on 02/27/2011

People who play the false equivalency game, e.g., Jason and Hunter, don't recognize the importance or urgency of the issue at hand. What they highlight is the social dynamics of it, thereby elevating decorum over the pursuit of justice. There is a real bourgeois sensibility circulating around these days that tends to gloss over the real issues. People shouldn't be so conflict adverse. There is nothing "negative" in fighting for what's right.

[Jack Canuckski]

08:19 PM on 02/27/2011

You are perfectly right about the question of decorum. When somebody lies to my face, especilly if they are lying about me and the things I know to be true, it is hard not to become a little emotional.

[HST]

05:59 PM on 02/27/2011

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says he campaigned on his budget repair plan, including curtailing collective bargaining

"Let’s sum up our research.

Walker contends he clearly "campaigned on" his union bargaining plan.

But Walker, who offered many specific proposals during the campaign, did not go public with even the bare-bones of his multi-faceted plans to sharply curb collective bargaining rights. He could not point to any statements where he did. We could find none either.

While Walker often talked about employees paying more for pensions and health care, in his budget-repair bill he connected it to collective bargaining changes that were far different from his campaign rhetoric in terms of how far his plan goes and the way it would be accomplished.

We rate his statement False."
http://politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/feb/22/scott-walker/wisconsin-gov-scott-walker-says-he-campaigned-his-/

Scott Walker is a liar.

[BooBoo von BooBoo]

07:55 PM on 02/27/2011

Wow - looks like you got schooled by a liar then, because he is taking what you got and you ain't eve gettin it back.

[logicalchoice]

10:05 PM on 02/27/2011

and all of America sees what is at stake by electing people like him. i'm thinking the next election will be different when the repubs "warn" us about the liberals we are about the put in thier place.

[Randolph Greer]

05:35 PM on 02/27/2011

What set off the revolutions in the Arab World was an educated young man in a small town in Tunisia who couldn't get a job , so he set himself on fire . And some people in this thread are saying that Wisconsin has nothing to do with the revolutions in the Arab World .
And some people are wondering why others are brainwashed so easily by Fox and Friends ? The degree of ignorance being displayed by nearly everyone is astounding . Of course , there is a connection between the two . It just isn't the connection that Glenn Beck is talking about and it isn't what Ed Schultz is thinking about when he claims that any comparison is some kind of insult to the people of Wisconsin .
The connection between the two is obvious to everyone who is paying attention . Human beings have within themselves an instinctive perception of economic fairness . When that perception is violated so blatently as it has been in the Arab World and Wisconsin and all over this country ; the people, when they lose all hope, will inevitably rise up in frustration to preserve their own well being . At that point , they will commence a revolution . It will happen here too , if the Republicans succeed in their attempts to destroy collective bargaining . That is really why the unions have to prevail . It is the only chance we have to avoid a revolution here.

[wernerholm]

03:16 PM on 02/27/2011

The news writers are just plagiarizing the Huff post comment threads,

Last week commenter's compared anyone they didn't agree with to "Mubarak"..... this week it's "Kadafi" or "Qaddafi" or whatever....

Jon Stewart got it right..... they are comparing apples to something they saw on the news last night

[youvebeenflagged]

01:13 PM on 02/27/2011

Yet another false equivalency.

[AnthropologistAmongApes]

03:05 PM on 02/27/2011

Say more.

[madame48]

01:05 PM on 02/27/2011

this is the sale of the Iraq war all over again...with the exact same tactics...why doesn't the MSM see this..they are blind YET AGAIN...once the unions are all busted we will see the gutting of Social Sec, Medicare, unemployment Ins, minimum wage, student loans etc....it iwill be the end of middle class representation

[moby49]

12:40 PM on 02/27/2011

Sill thave not heard any answer to my question of "where is the shared sacrifce" that so many people insist they want.

Here is what I see. The private sector people, having been screwed by the corporations, want the public sector folks to take the same screwing rather than insisting the corporations give them more. Why you ask? Simple, the private folks have NO UNION to fight for them.

[madame48]

01:07 PM on 02/27/2011

My house burned down and you still have one, I want YOURS burned too, instead of rebuilding mine...It is the sale of the Iraq war all over..only a war on the middle class, starting with the unions

[ghostrider57]

03:47 PM on 02/27/2011

Well Said. F&F.

That is one of the things I can't figure out, is how working people can want other working people to take less. Some of the people in the private sector seem to think the public sector working is making this fantastic salary and has this great pension.

1. People in the public sector make less than a comparable type of position in the private sector.

2. The majority of the private sector used to give their employees a pension also. But because the majority of private sector has no unions the companies just took the pension benefit away. Workers really couldn't say much about it. You had 2 choices, continue working without the benefit or quit and find another job at a company that had also taken away the pension benefit.

We have let the top 2% divide and conquer us..

[margoharris]

10:46 PM on 02/27/2011

Exactly, f&f.

[nothingchanges]

11:59 AM on 02/27/2011

You know what the saddest thing is?

We can't afford people who work for a living that make middle class wages because they belong to a union.

And every one of these talking heads, makes millions, does nothing, and belongs to a union?
(can't guarantee that last one, but it is likely, most do).

And we wonder why America is going down the tubes?

[GoodbyeBlueMonday59]

11:32 AM on 02/27/2011

Sunday Morning Talking Heads = De ad Air

[pdsimdars]

03:08 AM on 02/27/2011

While I appreciated most of the article, it is hard to express how offensive I find the video. I think it might have been Arianna who first brought up the concept of false equivalency. If she wasn't the first, she often uses it.
This video is a good example of FALSE equivalency. By splicing video of Ed Schultz in between the Faux News talking heads, you are making the FALSE equivalence.
If you go around and spread the rumor that our friend Bob is an abusive alcoholic . . you are making a false accusation. If I go around and say you have lied when you accuse Bob of being an abusive alcoholic. Those two things are NOT equivalent. One is a lie and the other is true. And yet, this video puts them on the same level.
Or maybe it's the similarity in TONE this video attempts to equate. And here, I may agree. We on the left are always complaining that those on the right have people strongly standing up for their principles and we don't seem to have any strong advocates for Progressive principles.
Being passionate about your core principles is not a negative thing, it is a necessary thing, something you don't want to criticize or lose. If you want a strong advocate -- well, that's what it looks like -- strong. When you criticize people for being passionate, you become passionless. And if you don't care about your cause, you lose.

[margoharris]

10:48 PM on 02/27/2011

Great comment. Keep on posting. f&f