NPR Brings You the Unheard Voice of Rush Limbaugh![]()
After 17 people were shot to death in the Parkland massacre, NPR’s All Things Considered ran a segment (2/19/18) quoting noted gun expert Rush Limbaugh (“we need concealed carry in these schools”) and Fox’s Tucker Carlson: “Tragedies like this happen for a reason, and it probably doesn’t have a lot to do with guns.” The show also quoted regular people blaming the slaughter on the fact that “we took prayer out of the school system,” and arguing that “they should put guns in the classrooms now with the teachers.”
Not included in the segment: Any actual gun experts responding to the claim that more guns are the answer to gun violence, or any examination of any evidence whatsoever. It’s a peculiar way to cover a deadly epidemic, like a report on a measles outbreak that quotes only anti-vaxxers.
Boosting Trump’s Tax Bill With ‘Bonus’ Hype
In the December 2017, when the Republican tax bill passed, only 37 percent of the public approved of it, according to polling for the New York Times (2/19/18); two months later, approval had risen to 50 percent. What had changed in the meantime? One clear factor was an endless parade of largely uncritical stories presenting thousand-dollar bonuses as the tax bill’s outcome:
“AT&T, Comcast Say GOP Tax Bill Will Mean $1,000 Bonuses for Employees” (Washington Post, 12/20
/17); “AT&T Giving $1,000 Bonus to Every Employee in the US When Trump Signs Tax Bill Into Law” (Dallas Morning News, 12/20/17); “Bank of America Is Giving Some Employees a $1,000 Bonus, Citing Tax Bill” (CNBC, 12/22/17); “American Airlines to Give Employees $1,000 Bonus to Share Tax Reform Benefit” (Dallas Morning News, 1/2/18); “Alaska Air Employees Will Get $1,000 Bonus Due to Tax Overhaul” (Seattle Times, 1/5/18);“List of Companies That Paid Bonuses or Boosted Pay Since Tax Bill Passed” (USA Today, 1/11/18); “Some of the Companies Giving Out Raises and Bonuses Because of Tax Reform” (CNN, 1/11/18); “Lowe’s to Pay US Staff $1,000 Bonus Following Tax Reform” (Reuters, 2/1/18).
Few if any of such articles pointed out the remarkable uniformity of the bonus size, suggesting that this was a coordinated effort to boost support for a tax bill that gave not thousands but billions of dollars in tax breaks to these corporations.
NYT: Don’t Be Misled by Claims That CEOs Are Rich
In his response to Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address, Rep. Joseph Kennedy III declared that “top CEOs making 300 times the average worker is not right.” New York Times factchecker Linda Qiu (2/1/18) deemed this statement “true, but misleading.” First, she pointed out that the most up-to-date figure is not 300, but 271—lest readers bemisled into thinking that workers make only 0.33 percent of what top CEOs do, when they really make 0.37 percent.
She went on to note that measured by cash compensation, the ratio is 70 to 1—though she didn’t point out that only about a third of CEO compensation is paid in cash. Maybe she worried that that context would be misleading?
Israel’s ‘Retaliatory’ Bombing of Syria for Shooting Down an Israeli Bomber
“Israel estimates that it destroyed nearly half of Syria’s air defense system in a retaliatory air force sortie after one of its F-16 fighter jets was shot down by a Syrian missile,” a Los Angeles Times news report (2/11/18) began. The word “retaliatory” is a loaded one; it presents Israeli actions as reactive and defensive, a response to the aggressive downing of
Painting warplanes carrying out an aggressive bombing raid as victims.
its plane. Reading into the story, by Noga Tarnopolsky, one learns that the Israeli plane was shot down while in the act of bombing Syrian territory, reportedly killing six people—which would seem to make “retaliatory” a more accurate description of the Syrian anti-aircraft fire.
The Times depicts Iran as having started the trouble, writing: “The fighting broke out Saturday after an Iranian drone, launched from a site controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, flew into Israeli airspace.” This is presented as fact, though Iran denied violating Israel’s airspace; how the paper determined Iran was lying is not made clear. In any case, Israel’s contention that killing six human beings is an appropriate response to an errant drone went unquestioned.
From ‘Sidelines,’ US Controls 1/4th of Syria
The Guardian’s Simon Tisdall (2/10/18) described the US and its Western allies as “hovering passively on the sidelines in Syria,” while ABC’s Conor Finnegan (2/26/18) expressed concern that “the US will remain on the sidelines” in the country.
In reality, America currently controls 28 percent of Syrian territory (Foreign Policy, 1/25/18), including “half of Syria’s energy resources, the Euphrates dam at Tabqa, as well as much of Syria’s best agricultural land” (Syria Comment, 1/15/18).
The US recently declared it intends to occupy Syria indefinitely (New York Times, 2/22/18).
‘Anti-Propaganda Warrior,’ You Have a Mission Closer to Home
Washington Post (2/9/18)
“Thursday at Seoul’s Osan Air Base, [Vice President Mike] Pence had transformed himself into something of an anti-propaganda warrior— a mild-mannered, if resolute, superhero who arrived inSouth Korea on the eve of the Winter Games to single-handedly rebuff North Korea’s public relations efforts.”
—Washington Post (2/9/18)
Pro-Capitalist Times
“I think we are pro-capitalism. The New York Times is in favor of capitalism because it has been the greatest engine of, it’s been the greatest anti-poverty program and engine of progress that we’ve seen.”
—New York Times editorial page editor James Bennet (Huffington Post, 2/27/18).