Media Bias -- Hot Off The Press

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Today we talk about today we talk about how the media does not expect for conservatives to govern and only puts all of that burden on the Democrats and how that affects all sorts of issues, from abortion to climate to taxation, including all sorts of state issues and local issues and national issues.

Jordan Berg Powers, Jonathan Cohn and Anna Callahan chat about Massachusetts politics. This is the audio version of the Incorruptible Mass podcast, season 5 episode 44. You can watch the video version on our YouTube channel.

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Transcript

Hello and welcome to incorruptible mass. Our mission here is to help us all transform state politics, because we know that we could have laws that support the needs of the vast majority of the people who live in our beautiful state. And today we are talking about how the media does not expect for conservatives to govern and only puts all of that burden on the Democrats and how that affects all sorts of issues, from abortion to climate to taxation, including all sorts of state issues and local issues and national issues.
But before we talk about that, I will have my co patriots, my normal folks here who are always with me, I'm Going to have you introduce yourselves. And I will start with Jonathan Cohn. Jonathan Cohn, he him his joining from Boston, right by the Huntington Theater and Symphony hall.
They've been active in progressive issue, in electoral advocacy in Massachusetts for a decade now, which is always wild to say. Jordan Berg Powers. He him.
I am a former runner of the state table in Massachusetts on the c4 side, and I am a longtime political activist in and around Massachusetts. And I live in Worcester. And I am Anna Callahan Sheher, coming at you from Medford, where I am a city councilor.
And I have been for a long time pretty interested, especially in local politics across the country, also in state politics, and very excited, as always, to be here with these two wonderful folks and also with you, our fantastic listeners. So let's kick it off with just a little discussion about how the media really treats the two sides very differently. And I would love to start with this idea that people on the left have to be somewhat reasonable and people on the right can be completely crazy, which to me, the one that is the most strident has been the way that the media often just had this sort of both sides ism around climate change believers and climate change deniers, as if those two sides are equally valid and equally reasonable and equally, you know, worthy of being put up in the press.
But please jump in with that issue or other issues as you see them in the media. Yeah, I'll just say really quickly that it's really frustrating everybody from the fact that the Republican Party actually has no platform,which is like barely news. But that's an amazing thing to say, that a party has no desire to pass things and has no vision for what it wants to do beyond just sort of like reacting to whatever cultural war has popped up to date whoever group they want to hate.
And that feeds into all sections of the conservative movement. And so you get things like the chamber of Commerce is proposing, proposes things that cost money, but never is expected to answer how to pay for it.You have groups like Mass Fiscal alliance and, um, taxation groups who are extremist organizations who oppose any forms of taxation, and they never, no one ever explains how things get paid for.
And the media just frontlines their quotes because it sees, like, oh, I got to put somebody else on the other side of that. I'll say. Also, the other thing about that asymmetry that is really frustrating is this is, you know, the,the, what happened with Trump around the, um, around his so called abortion stance? NPR quoted two groups of people in its first article that it put up online about it.
It got a Republican who was like, I support Trump, whatever he does. And then a conservative activist who was like, I can't believe this thing. There was no, you would never have an article about the minimum wage, which only features left, left leaning people's thoughts on it.
But yet you are allowed in the media to have conservatives be the only people speak to an issue. And that regularly happens in Massachusetts media, where you will get an article where the democratic position will be right of center and the only quote will be from Paul Kearney or Paul Carney from Mass fiscal alliance, the extremist organization. And there's nothing in the media.
There's no editor saying, like, oh, well, you got to get the other side to that, right. There's a, there's a complete asymmetry that you, there's not an, even in those quotes that get quoted from that extremist position are never tethered. They're never required to be tethered to the realities of governing, which is that, like, if you want something, you have to pay for it.
You have to figure out how to pay for it. What is the plan to pay for it? If you oppose every, if you oppose everything and don't want to pay for anything, totally. What's the plan? And I would also bring up abortion as a thing, like proving that the Republican Party doesn't have anything on their platform, because, like, abortion,getting rid of abortion was one of the few things on their platform.
And now that they've done it, they're all walking back like, well, we didn't read it that way. Like, oh, actually,we're still leaving up to the states. Oh, well, you know, maybe the six week, maybe an eight week, maybe, youknow, so they're no longer, they're kind of walking away from that because it was so extreme that now.
Yeah. But I think also because the media, the media frontlined a position that was inherently stupid. Right.
Like, for 50 years, the conservative movement has been allowed to have equal access to doctors, to experts,to people who say you cannot ban abortion because abortion is a medical procedure on a spectrum. It Means a lot of things because it's not one thing. It's a care for people who are going through, who have reproductive needs, getting care.
And that care has a spectrum. It is a medical spectrum of procedures and coverage to keep people safe. And they treated that like it's a monolith that you could just get rid of.
And the media allowed that asymmetry. Right. You had one side of doctors, experts, people who actually give birth saying this is the position.
And the other side was like, I have an extremist position that's untethered to reality, but that's the way I, that'swhat I want. And they were allowed to. And so that allowance of saying those are equal things allowed that to maintain for so long and then, you know, hit up against reality when they got it.
And it reminds me as well, some of the points that you're noting is the way in which often, like I'm thinking when you're noting about what the mass fiscal alliance gets quoted is that you'll have, let's say GovernorMaura Keeley do something that's like not particular. That's like, that's something that's not particularly progressive but enough so to really that mass fiscal alliance opposes it. So you'll have her position in mass fiscal alliance.
It's like the high, like when more, when he had a hiring freeze, it was wild to me when there were some stories that like had just healer's hiring freeze and mass fiscal alliance complaining that this isn't enough and that she's like as opposed to acknowledging why are we doing this in the first place? We have rich state. We can raise money to do whatever we want. Right.
The only people who raised the tax cut connected to it were us online responding to it. Not a single reporter called any of the organizations that exist that could easily have been quoted to say they could have quoted anybody who on, like all of the people who retweeted it were all quotable before an article went out. Yeah,they don't.
They don't. And there's no editor like I think that's the thing is it's a system wide decision to platform one side extremism and have the other side be the only governing party, the only piece that governing which doesmake, I mean, we are a one party state. So it makes me curious about more republican one party states.
My guess is that the media does not like to pull in left wing people talk about it just because republican party, I doubt in Mississippi they get the same, socialists get the same level of coverage in Mississippi media as does the extremists here in Massachusetts. Do you, exactly. Exactly.
Do you want to tell us a little bit about childcare and Worcester? Yeah, I think the other piece. So this all, a lot of this, my thinking about this started because I unfortunately regularly read the Worcester chamber of commerce newspaper to get a sense of what, you know, I tried to read as many wide things as possible and it was, and it had a very modest proposal for it said it made the case that childcare is critical to growth and for jobs, which it was like, I was like, oh, I totally agree with this. And then it was like, we have a proposal and the proposal was like some really small program that would affect like ten people.
But you know, it was not nothing. They were like, we have a proposal for childcare and then there was no, like how would you pay for it? Like there was no, and they don't even, they're not even, they don't even think about how to pay for it. Like they're just like there should be this thing.
And then the rest of the paper is dedicated to getting rid of taxes, to complain about different taxes that have been put on by the state and by the, by the city to help pay for things that we already have it just to oppose all of those taxations. And the media quoted their childcare proposal. But there's never, they don't say at anypoint, right? They're not quoting anybody to say like they'll quote people saying that child care is important,though.
They'll platform the chamber's idea on it, though. You know, so basically they're doing pr for the chamber by saying like, look, they're reasonable partners and they platform their really modest idea and they don't have,and the quotes are all people saying how important childcare is, but they're not quoting experts saying like this proposal does nothing. And they're also not touting anybody.
They're not adding any context, which is that the chamber opposes any ways to pay for it, right. So all of the context and all of the things about it are missing and they're allowed to do that. But you just do not see that in other places around.
You know, you wouldn't have a story about raising taxes on millionaires where the only thing are quoted are a few millionaires and leftists about what really, there's not that type of thing and there isn't even access to leftists in most of the media, right? The media, only the voices that are in the media are center, maybe center left and far right. And let's like, I think taxation is a really good example of this. Like, so when every tax date happens, they, the media regularly platforms tax extremists.
People who absolutely oppose any form of taxation. They oppose, they oppose, they say they, they do. They Oppose everything, right? Like anytime somebody wants to raise a tax, anytime somebody says something should be taxed, they absolutely oppose it.
You cannot point to a tax that these groups have said, yes, that's fair, that makes sense, that's reasonable.That is platform next to people who are asking for some sort of change, a small change in it to better pay for the things we do, right? Like small adjustments to try to govern our society, right? Like that's juxtaposed with like an extremist. But they don't have people who are like tax millionaires at 100% arrest billionaires, right?Like, they're not platforming leftists, they're platforming people who are trying to govern and juxtaposing them with the far right extremists who have no plan that could ever govern, right.
None of their ideas are possible, right. In terms of the way that the chamber gets viewed. It reminds me of how the chamber for, I presume still, but has a history of funding, let's say, climate denial work, climate denial advocacy.
And it's like, why are you being treated as, let's say, like a good faith partner in governance by so many people, by like so many, like the way that Democrats always do the round of talking about the chamber and treat the chamber as like, as a vital part of the ecosystem when they are like some of the main players in advocating for the planet to burn. I know as well as with that, that it's very clear how often what the chambers does is advocating for the largest of businesses while pretending that they're advocating for small businesses as well. And they'd be more than happy to have policies that put small businesses out of business.
And Jonathan, you had also talked a little bit about how we are the media, the way that the media portrays things and how it compares to different parties in Europe, where a lot of times they're allowed to have more than two parties, right? So allowed to have more voices speaking, whereas we have a two party system. And so there really is just the Republicans in the Democrats. It's what makes it often interesting when it comes to,let's say, like partisan differences because a lot of things that get negotiated in the context of a coalition in european countries get basically negotiated within one party here.
And the thing that I always find it funny when you have people, like when some folks on the left will complain and say that the Democratic Party in the US is basically like a right wing party in Europe. And I always like to push back in part because that, like the labor party in the UK exists, which is always a joke, which like somehow always manages to make the Democratic Party look good by comparison. I don't know.
They had their moments under Corbyn when they started. Small moment, small moment. One might call it a fleeting second.
That's the party had. But what is much more accurately so, is that what exists under the democratic party in the US is often what exists in the context of a grand coalition government in Europe, where you have social democrats and you have the Christian Democrats, the party of the center left and the party of the centerright, the times where they end up in coalition together with, let's say, the main opposition to that being this right wing, violently anti immigrant party that they don't want to keep in government, they don't want to allowinto the government. And like, that's what's much more comparable and that it becomes like, it's not acknowledged in the same way of how the kind of bundle of positions held in the republican party is just so out of the pale and is often much more comparable to the parties that were like the legacy of the fascist parties in Europe that others didn't want to keep and didn't want to enter government.
And to some extent, the way that the Democratic Party kind of represents the bundle of like, of a century left and center right, to me, seems like there's almost a way in which that's like a cold war holdover of what theUS wanted to exist as like a. As a kind of liberal democratic center in Europe against the fight against a fight against communism. But it's still just striking about, like, positions that, that just aren't in good company in many european countries or only entering that with a rise of, like, particularly viral anti immigrant sentiment or just mainstreamed by the republican party here.
Yeah, like, I think, I think I just want to highlight what Jonathan's saying, which is like, the media is complicit and taking extremist positions and extremist party and treating it the same as a governing party. And the problem is that only one party in America is holding all of the governing, and it is. And that's the expectation and that's like dangerous for both democracy but also for trying to pass things that matter.
Because if you, there's not, there's not like, you know, there's not a serious other, you know, they're like, they like this, both sides of them, but there's not, there's not a, they're not tethered to anything. They don't need todo. You know, if you're, they're, their policies are unworkable.
They're not serious. They're not even trying to propose things. And this is the entirety of the conservative mind field at this moment.
In policy, there aren't serious policies being pushed to reasonably make people's lives better. They have policies to take away rights and, and like get power. But that's it.
There's not any desire to do anything, destroy the government. Right. Like a lot of their policies on the national level are, and, and the local and state level.
Yeah. Are to just stop all funding of the government, make the government utterly incapable of doing anything, which, you know, it doesn't line up with their pro police, pro military. Like this kind of stuff has to come from somewhere.
Right. But they don't. And there's no expect, the media never makes an expectation to say, how do you pay for these things? Right.
So you'll regularly see people run for office who say, I will lower taxes and have more money for education than police. That is a literal math problem. You failed math.
And the media will quote that. They'll just quote it and they won't. And to some extent I understand, like they're put in a bind.
Like they have to quote it, but they won't contextualize it. They won't have an expert say, that's not how mathworks. They won't have a leftist quoted saying, actually we should divert all the money for the policing to education.
Right. Then there's not literally a quote you can find in those pieces about when somebody, whensomebody's running for office. Right.
Those political pieces, it's always like the voices are always skewing. And I think that's, that's when we're trying to figure out what's happening to Massachusetts Democrats. To me, this is, this is what happened.
This is like the, part of the problem is the democratic party in Massachusetts is holding, is holding conservatives and trying to tell leftists to be quiet. Right. Like that's, it's, and it's, so it's trying to, so it placates the business interests because the, because, because the conservatives and the businesses, the infrastructure that those businesses fund are extremists and don't govern and don't have a plan to govern.
So they, so the expect the Democratic Party to listen to those people but not actually. Right. But still do some governing that they don't want to do.
Right. But the Democratic Party, this is not like the triangulation of 1992, right? No, they need the money and they have to go to, or else they will be defeated by the Republicans. Like this is a democratic party that has super majorities, veto super majorities in both houses.
They don't have to do this. They don't. But they get, but if they try to move any direction, they immediately get admonished.
Right. The minute they try to act on behalf of people, they immediately get admonished by the, by the BostonGlobe, by, you know, you'll get Matt's, Matt Stout will go immediately to Paul Kearney and platform on WBUrright wing extremism. And then like, you know, he's just a, you know, like the, like our local NPR reporters are basically stenographers.
They'll just print their press releases, you know, and then, and you'll, and then you'll, and then, so they just,like, immediately admonishes, right? Like, you'll see this on rent control. You won't. When was the last time there was a rent control article that had experts from economists from the left? I can't remember one.
I mean, I'm sure there is, but they're rare. It's almost always extremists, people who have business interests,somebody who's like, I can't afford to live here. And a legislator.
Right? Like, that's the plan. That's the, like, that's the equation. And that's not a real accounting because the other side to that isn't, isn't like we have a, policies to make housing more affordable.
It's just, go fuck yourself. Right? That's the, it's the same thing with education. It's like, we want to make education better for people.
The things we're doing aren't working. And the opposition is like, but businesses want more money for education. So let's platform their ideas.
Even though they don't work. They've been proven to not work. They've actually exasperated the very thing that they claim to.
They're like, oh, we need to cut the gap. But the gap gets worse every time their ideas get put in,implemented. You know, like, it's just, you know, they, again, it's just this absolute asymmetry punishes theDemocratic Party for doing the thing it should be doing, which is advocating for the people who elect it.
And I'm going to jump in here because you did say one thing about taxation. You said, in all the media landscape across Massachusetts, we were the one place that was like, pushing back about taxation and asking these real questions. So I'm going to go ahead and have, not just me, but I'm going to ask you each to put in a comment about why people should donate to this program.
They should. And really send us your ideas as well. Send us your ideas that have to do with how can we get this program and this information to more people.
So send us your information, but please do donate to the show. Jordan and Jonathan, any last words about media, how we fit into it, and how people can support us? Jonathan, I do want to. I want to.
I want you to highlight the thing you said beforehand about Martha Coke, about the Kumar Healy and the recent sort of coverage around the hiring freeze that you said, I think, before we press record. I think I said that during this. You did say it during it.
Wow. I'm a little bit everywhere. No worries.
I'll just say really quickly, since I'm a little, I guess not with it, but I'll say, I just think this is really important that people support media that's serious about diving into issues, which is what we do. Like, you are going, no place else is going to talk about the governor's council. No place else is going to get into the deep understanding of rent control.
Like, you're just not seeing. You're not hearing the types of things. And that is not easy.
Um, we have really amazing people. We give our time for free, but we have really amazing people who help support that. And your, um, your donation helps make that possible.
And if you spread the word, if you share this with somebody, that's really important. And if you give us ideas,like, we've had people who just messaged us on Facebook or on. On Instagram and said, hey, can you cover this? And we were like, yeah, come on and talk about it.
We would love to have you. So do come communicate with us. Share this.
Spread this. It does not have to be this way. Our cases that we do a lot of great deep dives into different parts of state and local government that people might are, like, very unlikely to find elsewhere, because oftentimes they get glossed over in media coverage or you just, like, hear about something in passing, but you don't see people actually meaningfully engage with what this means, what it means for people, and why it happened in the first place.
And I think that one of the most important things is to have is, like, an informed and engaged public, because you can only hold elected officials accountable if you know what's actually going on. And I think that people should support us so that we can continue to do that and continue to do it well. Well, thank you all so much.
We love having all your listeners. We love it when you comment and let us know your thoughts and anyone else that you think we should interview on here. And we look forward to talking with you all next week.