It’s time we shout from the rooftops “THE PRESS IS THE PROBLEM.” Let me relate two experiences I had this morning in support of my position.
First, NPR.
While running an errand this morning I was listening to NPR who aired the first in a series of reports about the attack on workmen’s compensation insurance. Workmen’s comp came into being as part of the New Deal. Prior to workmen’s comp, if you were injured on the job, tough – you paid for medical care, if you couldn’t come back to work, you lost your job and income. Now, employers pay into a pool from which insurance payments are made to people injured on the job. It’s a bit more complicated, but, that’s the short version.
A lot of employers hate workmen’s comp – if they didn’t have to pay the premiums, their bottom lines would improve. Texas and Oklahoma have passed state laws allowing companies to opt out of workmen’s comp – and they are opting out in droves. Instead, they are replacing workmen’s comp with “private insurance” that is so restrictive as to amount to no insurance. The companies love it because they are saving millions in workmen’s comp premiums. Now, other states are looking to do the same thing TX and OK have done.
This is serious as it threatens to return workers to the status they had before the New Deal – that is, indentured servitude. This is what Democrats mean when we talk about the attack on working people and the middle class.
Next, CNN.
After returning home, I watched Carol Costello on CNN interviewing various talking heads about last night’s Democratic debate. Her focus finally came to rest on Bernie and “socialism.” Costello’s position in essence was “socialism= bad, Bernie=socialism, Americans don’t like socialism, therefore, Bernie doesn’t have a chance.” No discussion of the dying middle class, no discussion of income and wealth inequality – and then – BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In Jerusalem, a young man with a backpack stabbed someone at the Temple Mount (or some other old place of no interest to anyone but a few zealots) and away we went – forgotten was the debate, income inequality, dying middle class, and anything else of any importance – BREAKING NEWS!!!!! STABBING IN JERUSALEM!!!!! I stayed with CNN to see if they would leave Jerusalem and come back to something important. After five minutes of stabbing, security forces, Jerusalem, what does this mean for Obama’s MidEast policy – I quit. BREAKING NEWS!!! STABBING IN JERUSALEM AND I DON'T GIVE A FLYING F**K!!!
Sweet Thing (we will have been married 50 years next year) observed: “I don’t see any difference between CNN and Jerry Springer. And Springer is more entertaining.”
And that, folks, is my rant for today – Bernie said it in the debate last night – the press is the problem. They focus on a stabbing in Jerusalem while the middle class is dying. More attention goes to Donald Trump’s tweets than to the attacks on workmen’s comp. Anyone else remember Fahrenheit 451 and the shadows on the wall that kept people entranced while society crumbled around them?