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**JUNE 2, 2023**

Kuttner on TAP

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**** False Equivalence

Why does the mainstream media keep depicting lunatic-right Republicans
and normal Democrats as equidistant from the center?

With the final passage of the debt ceiling deal, Democrats got off
easier than one might have expected, given that it was a deal between a
mainstream Democratic president and a Republican House in thrall to the
lunatic far right. In drastic contrast to the scorched-earth budget bill
initially passed by the Republican-controlled House, the cuts were about
par for the course in a divided government; and they spare the country a
repeat of this debt-hostage ordeal for two years.

However, much of the media played the agreement as a compromise between
two equal extremes. The

**New York Times** story
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about House passage of the deal included this astonishing sentence:
"With both far-right and hard-left lawmakers in revolt over the deal, it
fell to a bipartisan coalition powered by Democrats to push the bill
over the finish line, throwing their support behind the compromise in an
effort to break the fiscal stalemate that had gripped Washington for
weeks."

Think about that for a moment. There is no doubt that Matt Gaetz, Elise
Stefanik, Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar et al. are far-right by any
definition, as white supremacists, Christian nationalists, election
deniers, and nihilists on fiscal policy.

But no Democrats in the House can fairly be described as hard left.
Those who voted against the deal included moderate liberals such as
Joaquin Castro, mainstream progressives like Rosa DeLauro and Jan
Schakowsky, as well as self-described democratic socialists including
Cori Bush and AOC. But none of them are "hard left," which suggests
anti-democratic, any more than Franklin Roosevelt was hard left.

The

**Times** coverage reinforces a narrative of false equivalence that the
media keeps repeating, with lazy catchphrases like "partisan bickering."
It also plays into the hands of corrupt No Labels and Third Way types,
who promote the idea that the best course for the republic is to split
the difference between neofascists and a normal mainstream Democratic
Party and president.

Big media, obsessed as it is with the appearance of fair and balanced
coverage, took years to give itself permission to accurately describe
Donald Trump with the impolite word "liar." But its treatment of the two
parties as in any sense symmetrical is far more insidious than using
euphemisms to characterize Trump's lies.

Our friend Peter Dreier, whose observations inspired this post, points
out that by any reasonable definition, "even the most left-oriented
Democrats (AOC, Bush, Bowman, Raskin, Jayapal) are not extremists. They
are shades of social democrats. They are pro-union, pro-choice,
pro-affirmative action, pro-LGBT equality, pro-Green New Deal,
pro-progressive taxation. But the most right-wing Republicans are
extremists and reactionaries."

Sometimes, a careless effort to appear balanced can yield coverage that
is misleading and just plain wrong. The

**Times**' competitors over at

**The Washington Post** have adopted the alarmist slogan "Democracy Dies
in Darkness." True enough. Democracy also dies in the twilight of lazy
reporting by formula.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

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Manchin's Pipeline Payoff Strangles Future Permitting Reform
Negotiations
<[link removed]>
The Fiscal Responsibility Act approved several items on fossil fuel
industry wish lists, with nothing for renewable energy. That kills
leverage for a broader deal. BY JAROD FACUNDO

Sempra Pushes to Expand Pacific Pipelines for Gas Export
<[link removed]>
Through a 'tribal justice' front group, the infrastructure arm of
the California and Texas utility owner has lobbied for gas exports that
could raise prices for its own customers. BY LEE HARRIS

Days of Plunder
<[link removed]>
Two new books call 'private equity' what it actually is, but neither
offers much hope for emancipation from our eternal hostile takeover. BY
MAUREEN TKACIK

Why Gun Jokes No Longer Work
<[link removed]>
Tragedy + Tragedy + Tragedy + Tragedy ... BY FRANCESCA FIORENTINI

 

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