reflectivepundit

Demagoguery at its worst: Republicans versus Health Care for the Less Fortunate

By Brigitte L. Nacos

The best cartoons, more than best laid words, get to the truth in politics und elsewhere. That’s certainly the case with a cartoon by Mike Peters in the Dayton Daily News that imagined the threefold gospel in case Jesus returned as Glenn Beck: “Don’t Heal the Sick, That’s Socialism; Don’t Shelter the Homeless, That’s Communism; Don’t Feed the Hungry, That’s Nazism.” Problem is that the cartoon is not overdrawn to drive political reality home--the despicable clown of Fox News is not a laughing matter. His and the demagoguery of like-minded fanatics has not only incited the so-called tea party movement but, by now, the mainstream of the Republican Party as the endgame in the long struggle for a very modest health care reform demonstrated.

On Sunday, before the House voted by a small margin for the Senate version of the health care bill without a single Republican vote, a Republican screamed “baby killer” as pro-life Democratic Representative Bart Stupak asked fellow Democrats to vote against a Republican amendment on abortion services. No protest came from the Republican side of the aisle. Obviously, Republicans are now okay with the rhetoric of the most extremist pro-life wing that glorifies anti-abortion terrorism—the killing of providers of legal abortion.

A day earlier, Republican member of the House incited openly an already out of hand crowd of fanatic protesters against the health care reform. As Politico reported,

“Republican Reps. Tom Latham of Iowa, Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri, Brett Guthrie of Kentucky and Gregg Harper of Mississippi stood on south balcony off the House floor — an area known informally as "the beach" — holding pieces of paper that read "kill the bill" to a group of cheering protesters. Some Republican lawmakers waved a "Don't Tread on Me" flag from the balcony, causing the crowd to go wild. Later in the day, Reps. Steve King, Paul Ryan and others gave the crowd an Evita’s welcome, before gathering together to spell out a “Kill the bill” with individual letter signs.”

The tea party crowd hurled the “n” word towards black representatives and the “f” word, a gay epithet, towards Barney Frank who characterized the atmosphere as “mass hysteria.” Indeed, mobilized by front organizations for the insurance industry, the rank and file members of the tea party movement and the Republican Party have been duped into rowdy protests or less visible opposition for the benefit of greedy insurers with discriminatory policies against sick people. They should remember that these insurers do not ask your party affiliation or your ideological preference when they discriminate against you in case of serious illness. 

Unfortunately, too many Independents and even Democrats have been deceived by the demagogues as well—a perfect situation for Republicans to further exploit polarization during the upcoming campaigns before this fall’s mid-term elections. Rarely, in modern history, has the country experienced a similar partisan polarization. It is entirely possible that the Democratic Party pays a heavy price in the congressional election this year and the presidential election of 2012.

News as Commodity and the Problem with Corporate Profit Imperatives

By Brigitte L. Nacos

Recently, news organizations have made plenty of news themselves. Not only newspapers that either closed shop, offered another round of buyouts, or fired newsroom and other staffers. The broadcast networks, too, have shrunk their news divisions and continue to swing the ax heavier these days. Following the lead of CBS News, ABC News will cut one fourth of its staff. Declining audiences and thus lower advertising rates plus loss of advertising to cable channels are reportedly pushing ABC’s and CBS’s news divisions to the brink—although an article in today’s New York Times notes that “Executives from CBS News and ABC News said the top corporate executives for both networks remained outspoken supporters of the news divisions.” Don’t trust such assurances. It’s the bottom line that counts. That’s why the situation is for the time being different at NBC where the news division--thanks to MSNBC and other cable outlets—continues to bring home bacon for its corporate parent General Electric.

All of this reminds us that the “[n]ews is a commodity” and “a product shaped by forces of supply and demand…” as James T. Hamilton writes in his excellent book “All the News That’s Fit to Sell.” If the news is understood as commodity, one would expect that the content of the product--what is reported and how—depends on business judgments. Here, the contemporary crisis of the press refers to news providers’ problems and failures in the economic marketplace.

But news media organizations differ from other enterprises because, as Walter Lippmann recognized nearly 90 years ago, the “community applies one ethical measure to the press and another to trade or manufacture.” This double standard is justified and comes along with the responsibilities of a free press. If the news is understood as a public good, one would expect that in return for utilizing public air waves as carrier of news and entertainment, broadcasters would be committed to providing public affairs information and monitoring government on behalf of citizens.