Media Mash: Barney Frank Retirement Edition
Amidst all the media coverage of Rep. Barney Frank's (Mass.) retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives, the media largely praised the retiring Democrat while overlooking the scandals of his tenure in office and his crucial support to government policies that helped fuel the housing bubble, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told viewers of the December 1 edition of Fox News Channel's Hannity.
"Why isn't anyone in the media talking about the obvious? This is a man who single-handedly presided over the collapse" of the U.S. housing industry, Bozell reminded host Sean Hannity in the popular recurring "Media Mash" segment. "Barney Frank in 2003 fought George Bush when he tried to do something about it." [video of the full segment follows page break]
Also discussed on the segment was ABC News anchor Christiane Amanpour's ongoing "jihad" against the Tea Party and Brian Williams's recent gushy enthusiasm about how great a family man President Obama is.
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Comments
Colorful?
Submitted by motherbelt on Fri, 12/02/2011 - 10:14am.
oh, is THAT what that's called?
<snort>
Bozell is absolutely right, as usual. The media's bias isn't always in what they report; it's in what they don't report. No "loving family" stories about Republicans.
The last time I remember a report about a "decent" Republican was YEARS ago. It was a column done by the late Mary McGrory of the Washington Post, about Tom Daschle and his wife, and all the foster children they had reared. And even at that, McGrory played it as kind of weird and unexpected that a conservative like Daschle would be so compassionate.
Tom Daschle is a Democrat.
Submitted by Smartypants on Fri, 12/02/2011 - 10:27am.
Tom Daschle is a Democrat.
I think you may be confusing
Submitted by Ken Shepherd on Fri, 12/02/2011 - 11:10am.
I think you may be confusing Daschle with DeLay.
You are right. My bad. I had
Submitted by motherbelt on Fri, 12/02/2011 - 11:22am.
You are right. My bad. I had the right face in my head, wrong name. The story was about DeLay.
Ken, would appreciate it if you could correct my post.
MB - Dashcle
Submitted by Gary Hall on Fri, 12/02/2011 - 12:36pm.
Just to rub it in a bit (not at you.) And I must confess, Daschle is a heck of a politician. I even had the opportunity to sit down and talk to him for a whole 10 minutes a couple of years ago re: health care reform; the man is completely personal and engaged and interesting.
But what I remember him for (and this really is all about the media - as they let D's play politics - not the R's), were his tax rebates of 2001.
Senator Daschle teamed up w/ Dennis Kucinich and Lieberman as we entered 2001 with a new President, George W. Bush at the helm. The Dot.com bubble had crashed 10 months earlier, and everyone knew we were headed into a recession. The trio helped push the infamous "Tax Rebates," of some $40-$60 billion into the 2001 Bush stimulus bill, in addition to some of the longer term stimulus that the Bush administration was pushing for. All in all, only about $70 billion of stimulus spending and tax cuts would hit the budget books for 2001(technically Clinton's last budget year). More would come later, in 2002 and 2003.
[..] The Lieberman-Daschle bill would take $60 billion of the estimated $96 billion budget surplus for this fiscal year and quickly return it to taxpayers to spend, save, or invest, and thereby provide an immediate antidote to the current economic slowdown.
"This plan is just the right medicine for what ails our economy right now -- it is fair, fast, and fiscally responsible," Lieberman said. "Every taxpayer, including low-income working families, would benefit from a prosperity dividend. It would pump $60 billion into the economy in a matter of months. And it would not jeopardize the fiscal discipline we know is crucial to the nation's long-term economic health."
Tom Daschle US Senator for South Dakota
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 28, 2001
Sidebar: Corzine (Now of MF Global fame) teamed up with Brookings, and was pushing for Dividend tax reform. Ready? They wanted zero taxes on the corporate side of Dividend taxes - not on the individual side. Sh.
How'd the politics of that play out? Well, it was a hard jobless recovery for a few years (9/11 didn't help), and when the force behind the "Tax Rebates,"
Daschlenomics: Tax Rebates Made the Recession Worse - Jan 18, 2002
On January 4, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said President Bush's tax relief plan "probably made the recession worse."
Oh really? Only $41 billion of the president's bipartisan tax relief plan went into effect last year. Of that amount, 93 percent or $38 billion comprised the income tax rebates. Regardless, the MSM ran with Daschle's view - and always only shrilled at Bush.
Now - let's do the math looking back at how our media recall how that $41 billion added up:
Fareed Zakaria, Jan 18, 2009:
In 2000, the Clinton administration had almost balanced the federal budget, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office was projecting that over the next 10 years the United States would have surpluses that would add up to $5.6 trillion -- yes, trillion.
By the spring of 2002, two thirds of that projected surplus had evaporated, and the rest disappeared soon thereafter.
There were many reasons for this, out-of-control spending being one. But by far the lion's share of the surpluses went into the tax cuts.
Pull out a calendar. The "spring of 2002" would be about 15 months after Bush was inaugurated. How'd he do that? Amazing? By that point in time, really about the only tax cuts that had hit the books was Daschle's tax rebates; yet, Zakaria's able to comfortably state that already $trillions in surpluses had vaporized - mostly because of Bush.
Well, Daschle said so.
Fine, that's what politicians do; however, our media ain't supposed to just buy it.
(;~/ gary
Dashele was a prominent and Very liberal Senator!
Submitted by cbeyer on Fri, 12/02/2011 - 11:02am.
Actually he was the majority leader! No wonder liberal Mary McGrory did a puff piece on him!
AAARRRRRHGH! Somebody shoot me!!
Submitted by motherbelt on Fri, 12/02/2011 - 11:26am.
UPDATE TO ABOVE COMMENT
The story WAS about Tom DeLay. I got the names mixed up, not the people or the story.
I would never refer to Tom Daschle as a "conservative."
OK, now???
Not Ok
Submitted by PaleHorse on Fri, 12/02/2011 - 11:27am.
Your mistake will be added to your permanent record! *chuckle* Relax, it's just a comment on a website. Don't let it ruin your day.
Don't feel bad, mb
Submitted by jon_torlin on Fri, 12/02/2011 - 12:10pm.
That gave me pause as well, and I know who Daschle is, scumbag that he is(remember his famous meltdown?) and would never confuse him with someone as compassionate or a conservative or anything of that nature, totally opposite of what he really is. I'm glad he's gone.
But it did get me to do a "wait, what??"
-Jon
Barney Frank, Democrat (Mass)
Submitted by CO2Maker on Fri, 12/02/2011 - 11:47am.
Mass? Why bring in the evil Catholic Church? It should be (MA), like, you know, the person who named him "Barney"! He must have gotten a lot of boxing practice as a boy.
But no, you had to say "Mass." I'm so offended that you reminded me of the Catholic church that hates gays except the priests who fiddle with little boys. I'm not being anti-gay, just anti-Catholic, when I say that. If Catholic priests are gay and molest little boys, I'd be so offended with myself for saying so. No, they hate any kind of sex that doesn't lead to children, and no kind of "Oops, my bad" birth control recovery measures.
Catholics. Sheesh, whatcha gonna do? At least they're not a protected class so you can make all the jokes you want to and get praised at the office.
[ well apparently this blog doesn't allow the Internet G-spot, like this:]
Always remember
Submitted by ohio granny on Fri, 12/02/2011 - 4:29pm.
Always remember when talking about democrats for any reason, in any capacity they are LIARS, CHEATS AND CROOKS. You can NEVER trust anything they say. No low is too low for a democrat to sink. Even when we think we have seen the lowest, they always find a way to sink even lower.