Producer of an MSM morning news show? Got a few minutes to fill at the end of your first half-hour? Why not resort to a tried-and-true winner: a bit of good old class warfare?That was the "Today" formula this morning. Matt Lauer introduced the segment, enviously entitled "Share the Wealth?: The Rich Get Richer," fanning the flames of envy and resentment with this opener:
TODAY CO-HOST MATT LAUER: Do you feel like you're working harder and harder nowadays just to stay financially afloat while fat cats get richer and richer? It's not just a feeling, and you're not alone. The story now from from CNBC's Scott Cohn.
View video here
Cut to Cohn, with footage of Richard David Story, editor of the magazine for American Express's "most elite cardmembers," holders of the black Centurion card. Amidst shots of mounds of jewelry and rich people being pampered, Cohn explained that Story "is on a constant quest for the glitziest, the most glamorous, for an audience that just keeps wanting more."RICHARD DAVID STORY: They're looking for that one perfect bottle of wine. They're looking for that one perfect not hotel room, not suite, that one perfect villa. And they're extremely demanding right now.After a couple average-folks-in-the-street comments, Cohn resumed his kvetch.
COHN: They can afford to be, with a record stock market, and hedge funds creating a new crop of billionaires. But then, there's the rest of us.
COHN: Not only are the rich getting richer, they're leaving everyone else behind. In fact the last time the rich were this much richer than everyone else . . . was the Great Depression.Ooh, scary. But what's the relevance? Are most of us in danger of hitting the soup line anytime soon? Cohn then passed along the finding of a study from perhaps America's most liberal university, Berkeley.
COHN: A University of California study shows the top 1% of Americans now make 22% of the nation's income, their biggest piece of the pie since 1929, while middle-class Americans, by and large, are stuck, rising energy prices canceling out any increase in wages.I couldn't substantiate Cohn's claim. I did find this recent column describing a Berkeley study reporting that the richest 1% garner 17% of the income. In any case, Cohn failed to mention that that same richest 1% also pay . . . 36.9% of federal income taxes, and that the bottom 50% pay 3.3% (earning 13.4%).
Cohn then rolled a clip of Robert Greenstein, Executive Director of the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities [whose funders include George Soros' Open Society Institute and the Barbra Streisand Fund], lamenting: "It makes it harder to achieve the basics of the American dream for the millions of families that get up, work hard, play by the rules every day.""Work hard and play by the rules"? Wasn't that Bill Clinton's middle-class mantra? Not surprising Greenstein should be parroting it. After all, in 1994 Clinton appointed him to the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform. Of course Cohn didn't bother to identify the Center's liberal orientation. What are the odds "Today" would have on a representative of, say, the Heritage Foundation without tagging it "conservative"?
Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.
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What a difference a decade ma
April 26, 2007 - 10:48 ET by newstalkmachineAfter reading the first line
April 26, 2007 - 10:57 ET by BeowulfAfter reading the first line of this story, my only thoughs were "How much does little Matty make, and how much has he 'redistributed' to those less fortunate"? Then I read on and saw the $13 billion figure, and my thoughts were confirmed.
What these loud-mouthed hypocrites really mean is that the working middle class should share their "excess" with the designated poor, not that the filthy rich should even touch their millions.
And let's totaly ignore the fact that even with a so-called disproportionate split of income, the oppressed middle class are so much better off than ever before. The filthy rich are filthier richer because there's so much more wealth to be had. But this is a textbook example of how to make statistics work for you...
The Closed Mind Builds Strong Barriers
Cohn then rolled a clip of Ro
April 26, 2007 - 11:09 ET by Ron_servativeCohn then rolled a clip of Robert Greenstein, Executive Director of the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, lamenting: "It makes it harder to achieve the basics of the American dream for the millions of families that get up, work hard, play by the rules every day."
I can't, for the life of me, figure out how some rich guy is making it harder for me to make a living? You would think that it would make it easier for us since they are paying so much in taxes that we would have to make up for if they weren't.
Typical liberal thinking that if someone has, someone else must have not.
I don’t get it either every
April 26, 2007 - 11:30 ET by EKOGI don’t get it either every time I hear this subject come up this is what I hear them saying:
Because their stealing the money right out of your wallet it should be your money lets make them all give it back who cares if they worked hard for it its not our fault they worked two jobs or sacrificed to make the money just give it back to us because we will always deserve it more then they do.
Its one step away from communism to me!
This subject (anything financ
April 26, 2007 - 14:57 ET by mulerider24This subject (anything financially or economically related) is easily my #1 gripe about our all-knowing press. Why don't we show Mr. Lauer what a Gini Index of 0 would look like and pay a newly hired anchor in Mexia, TX the exact salary that he makes. That way we finally create the utopia that our MSM colleagues have been asking for all these years - a country where everyone earns the same amount regardless of merit. Just think how pretty that pie will look with every slice cut exactly the same. That'll show them dirty capitalists.
This is just bull. The last t
April 26, 2007 - 11:12 ET by EvokeThis is just bull. The last thing on my mind when I go to work every day is other peoples wealth. Since when is the 'American dream' calculated by what "the Jones'" posess? These folks havn't a clue.
Libs are always leading peopl
April 26, 2007 - 11:14 ET by HypocriteHaterLibs are always leading people to believe that there's a finite amount of wealth available. Anyone can be rich if they apply themselves or find themselves in the right situation (ie: marry into money like John Kerry did). Rich people aren't taking all the rich people slots to the detriment of poor people, and poor people aren't ever going to be rich collecting welfare checks.
Yes, the middle class work hard, but maybe, just maybe, the rich work even harder for their money? But at what cost to their personal life? Some people want more of a personal life, so they don't work as hard, thus they don't make as much money. These are what we call choices in life, Matt.
Also, libs never want to talk about how rich people contribute to the economy with their lavish spending. We wouldn't have jewelry stores or BMW dealers or doggie daycares for the rich if it wasn't FOR the rich. And who are the people running the businesses that cater to the rich? My guess is the middle class.
"Left-Wing Think Tank&
April 26, 2007 - 11:17 ET by MightyMouth"Left-Wing Think Tank"
Now there's an oxymoron if I have ever heard one.
"There are two types of people in this country; those who provide freedom and those who enjoy it." MM says...
Later in the show Matt lauer
April 26, 2007 - 11:55 ET by Jack BauerOh hang on, that was Cho Seung-Hui as he was murdering 32 people.
Ah yes the socialist, sub-Mar
April 26, 2007 - 12:17 ET by Jack BauerAh yes the socialist, sub-Marxist spokesparrot the...
is funded by the suspect usuals of moonbats and lib***ls, including the George Soros world government front group the Open Society Institute...
That would be the naturalized US citizen billionaire George Soros who has all his assets and money safely secured from US tax authorities in two unsavory countries.
Yes -- unlike dumb working stiffs, Soros pays NO tax to the IRS on the vast bulk of his billions.
Then there's this delicious fact
Matt Lauer questions.
April 26, 2007 - 12:43 ET by mikejA few questions I would like to have seen asked that weren't.
1) Exactly what are people supposed to do? Not make money? Or just not make too much? That makes sense according to the lib's I guess. "I'm sorry sir, I know you want to buy my house for $300k, but that would be too much profit for me, how about I sell it to you for $150k?"
2) Why don't they ask the guys running the camera how the feel working for a multi-millionare pompous geek that makes about 25 times what they do for reading a teleprompter and spouting of liberal talking points?
Fat cats under Bill Clinton
April 26, 2007 - 15:07 ET by Gary HallFat Cats Under Bill Clinton.
In this little chart, from a recent LA Times article, the caption notes that over a 15 year period of time (1990-2005) this pay gap between workers and CEO's had risen 4 times.
Not mentioned, naturally enough, is that according to their chart this pay gap soared by 5 times in only 6 years (1994-2000) during the Clinton era.
For goodness sakes, it's not even got back to where it was during that greedy Clinton era.
Gee, I wonder if the media was so upset about this back in 2000, when it was certainly much more shocking.
Every American has the opport
April 26, 2007 - 17:33 ET by QueenMumEvery American has the opportunity to invest in the stock market. Even the small insurance office where I used to work had a 401K plan. And now the RC and I are doing quite well after his retirement thanks to our stock portfolios.
I'm sick and tired of this class warfare that makes entrepeneurs and successful business people out to be enemies of the people. Why do the lefties and the Oot-MsM continue to try to fly in the face of common sense? And why are there still those who are willing to listen to someone telling them that the reason they don't have enough money is because someone else has more? If someone in America is making millions of dollars, that means that there is a market for whatever it is that they are doing or making. And it means that there are people who are being employed to help with the doing or making.
The stock market is at an unprecedented high and tax revenues are also at record levels - in spite of tax cuts. But then most of us understand that tax revenues are up because of the tax cuts. I'm no financial wizard. Why is it that I can understand the concept and yet the Oot-MsM continues to focus all their efforts on "empathizing" with the lowest common denominator?