In an appearance on the Fox Business Network February 8, Business & Media Institute Vice President Dan Gainor criticized the media's refusal to fully report the costs associated with campaign promises being made by presidential candidates.
"You would actually think the media had talked about how much it's going to cost," Gainor said of the hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending promised by the candidates. "And in fact it's quite the opposite."
Aside from some coverage of Sen. Hillary Clinton's massive universal health care coverage proposal, much of her $217 billion in promises has gone unreported. The same goes for Sen. Barack Obama, who leads all candidates with $287 billion in new proposals, according to estimates from the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.
When FBN host David Asman asked if the recently narrowed field would lead to more in-depth coverage, Gainor expressed pessimism. "I wish we would, but I doubt it. When you look at how the networks have covered even the debates ... consistently you have journalists focusing on the horse race and much less on the specific issues."
"The novelty of a couple people asking the occasional economic questions on what amount to specialized sort of wonky programs on Saturday, or Sunday mornings," Gainor said of Sunday shows like NBC's "Meet the Press" and ABC's "This Week," "that's not what the mainstream press are really focusing on. They're focusing far too much on the flash, not the substance."
Gainor called on members of the media to start challenging the candidates on some of their more expensive proposals and promises.
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Thank goodness SOMEONE finally said it
February 8, 2008 - 18:06 ET by ironchefofmunchiesI've been forced to tune out 99% of the coverage of this election because I frankly can't stand the "who's dreamier, Bill Clinton or Obama???" coverage. Or, "which would it be better to have-the first woman or the first black president?"
Journalists have decided that reporting the news just isn't good enough anymore. The result is obsessive coverage of personality and popularity and no coverage of specifics or substance.
So when we wind up with incompetent leaders, let's not be too surprised. Nobody cared to check closely (as long as they have a "D" after their name, that's good enough for the press!)
Flash
February 8, 2008 - 18:08 ET by Jerry MackThe msm will not ask any questions about the cost of a proposed program because they do not have the intelligence or education to evaluate the answer. 90% of them are liberals so the only thing that they here is that the government will provide it. Then by their socialistic mind set it must be good.
Kudos to Gainor for
February 9, 2008 - 00:08 ET by motherbeltKudos to Gainor for bringing this up. I think I heard a candidate or two mention the costs of an opponents' programs once or twice, but that's it.
The MSM is simply not interested in costs; that just takes away from the "intention" of the program, which, for them, is all that matters. How someone quibble about providing universal pre-K? Or 3 months fully paid leave when someone has a baby? Or college that can be had on a single mother's pay?
Besides, the money is going to come from "taxing the wealthiest Americans." Oh, and smokers.
Who cares about either of them?