Steve Benen put up a post the other day about an exchange between Candy Crowley and David Axelrod that is a perfect illustration of how the media has morphed into stenographers for politicians, mostly Republicans. Many in the media have abandoned critical thinking and analysis in lieu of the easy routes – polls, talking points and false equivalency nonsense.
Here is the exchange that has Candy Crowley doing the heavy lifting for the Romney campaign.
CROWLEY: But couldn’t that huge gap, which is a pretty big gap between those who think you could handle the economy as opposed to Mitt Romney — couldn’t it also be that, from the day — from the month the president took office, we still have 1.7 million fewer jobs in the marketplace?
AXLEROD: Candy, let’s have — you know what, I’m happy to have that discussion. Do you know that, when he was campaigning for president in 2007 and 2008, Governor Romney had nothing but praise for the economic policies that were in place at that time, as America was sliding into the worst recession since the Great Depression, after eight years in which we…
CROWLEY: But this isn’t Romney. This is a fact.
Steve Benen goes on to point out that in the first 6 months of the Obama presidency, the country lost 3.89 million jobs. And yes, President Obama was president at the time of those job losses, but if anyone thinks that a single thing that President Obama did in that first 6 months had ANYTHING to do with the job losses, they are seriously deluded.
Here is a chart that shows the number of job losses/gains over the last 10 years or so.
You can clearly see that the recession began under the Bush administration in 2008 and continued into the first year of President Obama’s “first” term. Notice the downturn in 2001 under President Bush, that wasn’t Bush’s fault either. If anyone is responsible for that downturn, it would be President Clinton.
In the many economics classes I suffered through in college, there was one thing that was pounded into our heads over and over again. It was the idea that the economy flows in cycles. What goes up will surely come down. They also taught us that policies enacted by any administration only have a marginal effect on the overall economy. I would argue that the stimulus package that was passed in 2009 had a greater impact than most, simply because of its size. But to be honest, what President Obama did was to stabilize our economy, which then allowed for it to begin to grow again.
Another concept we learned in these economics classes was that it takes time for changes in policies to have an impact. There is a lag time between when actions by the Fed or laws passed by congress have an impact. The analogy that it takes time to turn a giant ship around applies very nicely to our economy.
So regardless of what administration is in office, I try not to play the blame game when it comes to the economy. But I do play the “push back” game on those who do like to play the blame game – especially in instances like the one above. Candy Crowley clearly doesn’t understand how our economy works, or she is choosing to play dumb in order to further the new TeaNN network she works for.
When you include the fact that the first budget President Obama signed was one that was negotiated by the previous congress and President Bush, it becomes even more tenuous to try to pin those job losses on President Obama. President Obama reluctantly signed that budget into law, not wanting to create any more uncertainty than already existed. Remember how people were freaking out about the “Second Great Depression?” I do.
And then there is this little tidbit that Steve Benen posted today that shows that the vast majority of Americans don’t blame President Obama for the bad economy, no matter how hard the Republicans and Fox News have tried to do so.
The key to understanding this is simple — most folks still don’t blame the president for the mess he inherited.
A majority of Americans believe that former President George W. Bush is more responsible than President Obama for the current economic problems in the country, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Fifty-four percent of respondents said that Bush was more to blame while 29 percent put the blame on Obama; 9 percent said both men deserved blame while 6 percent said neither did. Among registered voters, the numbers are almost identical; 54 percent blame Bush, while 30 percent blame Obama.
Independents, widely considered the most critical voting bloc this fall, continue to blame Bush far more than Obama for the economic troubles. Fifty-seven percent of unaffiliated voters put the blame on the former Republican president, while 25 percent believe the blame rests more with Obama.
Heck, even one in five Republicans say Bush is more responsible than Obama for the state of the economy! (emphasis mine)
The same poll shows that the American people hold the Republicans responsible for the gridlock in Washington with 60% saying that President Obama is trying to work with Republicans to “accomplish” something while only 27% say the same about Republicans.
At some point, you would think that Candy Crowley would actually pay attention to some of the polls that run counter to the memes she is trying to push and realize that she looks pretty stupid to most people when she trumpets Republican party talking points that exist only in the wet dreams of the Tea Partiers.
When hasn’t Candy Crowley sided with Republicans? And now that CNN is pandering to teabaggers to boost ratings, expect even more of this crap.
My John insists of continuing to watch this dreck on CNN. I find CNN even more disgusting than FOXNews (and Candy Crowley is one of the most disgusting creatures they feature). Why? At least FOX is up front about who they are and what their mission is. CNN purports to be the “middle” and a “serious news organization.”
Bullshit. Anyone who give a microphone to braindead idiots like Candy Crowley and Wolf Blitzer, let alone Erick Erickson and Dana Loesch, is as much in the GOP and 1%’s pocket as FOX is but is, on top of that, a lying asshole. I wish to the FSM that Ted Turner would buy that damn channel back.
Polls have been consistent people still blame George W.Bush for the shitty economy. And when I see pundits say well if the economy still sucks it doesn’t matter what Obama says or what’s Willard record is people will vote against President Obama, I go what the fuck look at the polls dillweeds people still blame Bush.
This is why I hate CNN they try to play both sides of the fence, they want to say we’re middle of the road yet they let Republicans lie and the only time they correct them is when they slither back to Fox News to repeat the lie they told on CNN. On top of not challenging GOP talking points they got these race baiting Right wing pundits.
When the Morning Dofuses at Fox had these same results, they were shocked and pissed at the results.
After all their trying, the American people were not being fooled.
CNN has become a joke, the fact that not only do they genuflect to the Tea party, but have “contributors” like Dana Loesch and Erik Erikson on staff, its a fucking joke
Ted Turner must be screaming in bed at night over what his network has become
First of all Candy. You know you’re full of shit because a president stepping into a huge pile of republican shit can’t be cleaned up in a matter of months. These policies have been in effect for a long time. Oh and CNN can kiss my Obama supporting ass.
Ted Turner’s spinning in his grave…
I remember seeing a Tea Party guy on CNN with John King spewing one lie after another, very blatant lies and all John King did was feed him the next topic to lie about, not one challenge to the guy at all.
I think John King may be even worse than Candy Crowley as far as sucking up to the Tea Party.
Correct. The problem at CNN goes far deeper than just Candy Crowley. Remember last year’s State of the Union speech, when CNN aired not one, but TWO Republican rebuttals: the official RNC sanctioned one by Paul Ryan, and Michele Bachmann’s “Tea Party Rebuttal” (which then served as a launch pad for her now failed Presidential campaign)? CNN has been going way too far in pandering to the “tea party” to be taken seriously as a “news” outlet any more.
John King is probably the worst, most clueless anchor-type-person on that whole network. He’s William Hurt in _Broadcast News_-level phony.
All I know is they (and others) look funny when I change the channel. CNN has been getting the FauxNewz treatment as of late (skip past ‘em).
After watching Candy Crowley for the last time, it is abundantly clear that she is a blatant right wing hack. For years I thought CNN was a fair and balanced source of political discourse, a moderating force between MSNBC and FOX.
Unfortunately, Candy has time after time demonstrated her right wing bias by the way she conducts herself during her interviews. When she has multiple guests on her show she clearly always gives the GOP member more air time and her questions are invariably skewed to favor the right.
Shame on you CNN. Candy should be spinning her unbalanced negativity on FOX or the Tea Party Network , not the once fair and objective Cable News Network .
Candy Crowley, John King and Wolf Blitzer are not the journalists of my generation. I dislike them more than I do the people at Fox News. At least Fox does not pretend to be balanced in their reportage. The big three mentioned above are snakes who pretend to be analysts. PBS really is balanced, but they are not sycophants like the people at CNN. They seek the truth, and they tell the truth.