John -- The Senate is on the verge of giving in to Joe Manchin's demands on the Build Back Better reconciliation bill, cutting out paid family leave, drug pricing reform, free community college, and more. Whether you've given many times before or are a first-time donor to Inequality Media, please chip in whatever you can help make sure every American knows what's at stake in these negotiations. -- Robert Reich

Dear John,

Last week, I went on CNN to “debate” the Build Back Better plan. But instead of a debate or discussion of the bill, what viewers saw was a master class in corporate media bias.

And I'll be honest, I nearly lost my cool.

The CNN host repeated one right-wing talking point after another. She insisted -- falsely -- that “we can’t afford” to invest in the American people. And, as usual, CNN barely mentioned what’s actually in the bill.

The lobbyists swarming Capitol Hill to kill the Build Back Better reconciliation bill couldn’t have been more delighted.

The fate of this game-changing bill is being decided right now, and we know we can’t rely on the corporate media to inform the public about what’s at stake. So we’re going around them. Inequality Media Civic Action is producing and deploying proven-effective video explainers and other viral content to reach the public directly and make sure they know the truth. But in order to break through the corporate media spin, we need to go big now -- before the window to pass this bill closes.

Will you make a donation to counter the effects of the mainstream media and help make sure that every American knows what’s in President Biden's Build Back Better bill -- and how it will help them?

I try hard to keep my cool whenever I’m invited to be a guest on a show, but this was almost too much for me to take.

The host’s very first question to me demonstrated CNN’s bias, saying nothing about what’s in the bill and then stating that “The big question is whether Democrats can afford all of this.”

I responded that “I don’t think the question really is whether Democrats can afford it but whether the United States can afford it… and the answer there has got to be a resounding yes.”

So then CNN put up a series of distorted statistics that purported to show that the wealthy already pay enough taxes. Their numbers completely left out state and local sales taxes and property taxes -- which hit poor and working people especially hard -- and focused on the top 20 percent of income earners when the great majority of the nation's wealth is concentrated in the hands of one tenth of one percent.

Their stats might as well have come directly from the Republican National Committee.

But the worst thing is that as bad as the segment was, it was completely consistent with how CNN and other corporate media outlets have been covering this debate from the beginning -- and it’s exactly why we started Inequality Media Civic Action.

Because if the only method we have of communicating with a mass audience and building support for progressive policies is through the filter of the corporate media, we’re doomed to fail.

We’re running out of time to pass the Build Back Better plan. That’s why Inequality Media Civic Action is using our huge social media following to communicate directly with the public through viral videos and explainers. We need to make sure every American knows what’s really in this bill and how we can make the ultra-wealthy pay for it -- and counter the disinformation pouring out of the corporate media.

Will you donate and help support our urgent work today? Any amount helps, and I couldn't be more grateful for your support.

Thank you,

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action