Avoiding “Fiscal Cliff” Briefing; Fiscal “Dart” to CBS; More
Dec. 7, 2012 — Volume 12, Number 16
IN THIS ISSUE: A Day That Will Live in Fiscal Infamy
*** “Avoiding the Fiscal Cliff” —
Media Briefing, Dec. 13; *** CJR “Dart” to CBS’s Pelley for Soft Goldman Sachs Interview
*** AHCJ’s Early-Bird Award Savings and Fellowships; *** Council on Contemporary Families (CCF) Media Awards Deadline, Jan. 18; *** Alzheimer’s Association Media Outreach in No. California, Dec. 14.
1. FISCAL REFORM SCHOOL
*** “Avoiding the Fiscal Cliff”–
The Stakes for Low-Income Families in America’s Ethnic Communities” will be a national media teleconference next Thurs., Dec. 13, 10-11 a.m. Pacific // 1-2 p.m. Eastern. To feature Jared Bernstein, Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and former chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden. The briefing is a project of the Center and New America Media (NAM).
Bernstein wrote the lead op-ed in Wednesday’s (Dec. 5) New York Times, “Raise the Economy’s Speed Limit.”
He discusses “structural” versus “cyclical” problems in the economy and says that’s a false dichotomy. Although Bernstein doesn’t go into the background, conservatives have been saying things like the recession (plus two wars and the Bush tax cuts for the rich) are short-term “cyclical” problems that will correct themselves in a few years. Terrible things happened, they agree, but economic cycles will fall and then rise again.
However, say the GOP and many Wall Street Democrats, the U.S. economy is saddled with long-term “structural” deficits – that is, too many promises made to the American people were locked into law, and we can only get loose from burdensome “entitlements” if we act now to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Really, somehow a decade of profligate greed and warfare are only temporary problems, but programs that protect and stabilize life and the economy are “structural” issues that can push us off a cliff.
On Tuesday, former Sen. Alan Simpson was on “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart. The blustery half of the Simpson-Bowles plan is the supposedly straight-talking “tough cop” of the team, who attacked AARP as the enemy and calls for entitlement reform to cut that “structural” deficit so we don’t impoverish our grandchildren. That’s a favorite canard of those with 1% grandchildren.
Simpson’s refrain is” “We can’t tax and grow ourselves” out of this mess.
Bernstein is among a large number of progressive economists who say, wait a minute, we CAN grow the U.S. economy with smarter policies, like investing more in crumbling roads and bridges, in education and other things he mentions. After all, it’s only a dozen years ago that the federal budget was in surplus, right? But if we just let companies sit on the $2 trillion they have and do nothing in government spending, growth (good jobs, better tax revenue, etcetera) won’t happen. If we get our heads out of a budgets-only framing of the debate, we can give a boost to the American economic cycle–and won’t have to worry as much about the “structural deficit.”
The NAM briefing will spotlight the loses diverse low-income families could incur in essential safety-net programs, and the real-life deficits all American could see if budget negotiations results in cuts to basic public functions that foster economic growth and well-being, especially for low- and moderate-income families.
Bernstein, a member of President Obama’s economic team and contributor to MSNBC and CNBC, will be joined by New America Media (NAM) news anchor, Odette Keeley, who will moderate the briefing.
Both ethnic media and age-beat reporters for other media will get a fresh perspective on how the heady “fiscal cliff” debate could tilt for or against low- and moderate-income families and individuals.
To participate next Thursday, simply phone this CALL-IN NUMBER: 1-800-351-4892, and key in this passcode: 12650.
FISCAL REFORM SCHOOL (continued)
*** CJR’s Fiscal “Dart” to CBS and the Goldman Sachs Solution:
Columbia Journalism Review’s (CJR)
Trudy Lieberman skewered CBS and its news reader Scott Pelley for “another weak showing on Social Security.”
Lieberman’s Dart hit the bull’s eye : “Maybe CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley was so awestruck by a chance to visit one of the seven trading floors over at Goldman Sachs, and by a rare interview opportunity with Goldman’s CEO, that he forgot about good, skeptical follow-up questions. He and the CBS Evening News get a CJR Dart for this fairly embarrassing effort. Pelley reported: The ‘so-called fiscal cliff is a time bomb, according to Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, and one of the world’s most influential bankers. His message to Washington: Make a deal.’ In other words, reduce the federal budget deficit” — and don’t mind Wall Street too much.
Blankfein tells Pelley, “You’re going to have to undoubtedly do something to lower people’s expectations-the entitlements and what people think they’re going to get, because it’s not going to-they’re not going to get it.”
Pelley’s unsearching response was, “Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid?” Blankfein went on unchallenged, “You can look at history of these things, and Social Security wasn’t devised to be a system that supported you for a 30-year retirement after a 25-year career…So there will be things that, you know, the retirement age has to be changed; maybe some of the benefits have to be affected; maybe some of the inflation adjustments have to be revised. But in general entitlements have to be slowed down and contained.”
Pelley volunteered, “Because we can’t afford them going forward, which prompted Blankfein to respond: “Because we can’t afford them.”
An exasperated Lieberman, comments, “By now we’ve become used to weak reporting on Social Security from CBS, having critiqued its omissions, missing explanations, lack of context in three recent posts.” Links to several are included at the bottom of her piece.
A less harried reporter with a substantial and well paid research staff – oh, wait, this is CBS news, you know, the well-funded Edward R. Murrow network – might have known enough to push back a little. For instance, Lieberman suggests, Pelley might have noted that the U.S. spends 5 percent of GDP on Social Security. (Note also that all experts agree this will rise to about 6.4 percent of GDP at the height of boomers’ retirement, not an excessive sum for any economy.) Lieberman adds, “By comparison: In 2000, Germany spent nearly 12 percent of its GDP on old age, survivor, and disability benefits. Germany seems economically healthy, too.”
In terms of growing the economy, Lieberman continues, “The U.S. is a far richer country than it was in 1935 when President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, and richer than it was in 1965, when Congress created Medicare. She cites Jim Naureckas of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting: “It’s hard to figure out how we could afford to take care of our old people in [1935] and 1965 when our country was one-quarter or one-half as wealthy as it is today, but can’t afford to do so today.”
Blankfein’s assertion that Social Security was being used to support Americans after a 25-year career also needed an X-ray. Social Security’s retirement benefits are based on a worker’s career average wages from at least 40 years of work. In calculating the average, the five lowest years of earnings are disregarded, but wages from the remaining 35 years are counted-even in years when the worker earned no money. In that case, a zero is used in calculating the average.
You can read Lieberman’s insightful critique of Pelley’s interview and other coverage for yourself. But she concludes, “In any event, there is lots of stuff for CBS and the rest of the media to explore as the bandwagon for a ‘Grand Bargain’ that would shake the social safety net steams ahead.”
2. HAPPY NEW DEADLINES
*** AHCJ’s Early-Bird Award Savings —
Such a deal! The Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) is offering an early-bird discount on entries to its 2012 Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism made through Dec. 21. Submitting in time for Winter Solstice will save you $20 off of the regular fees per entry of $50 for member and $75 for non-members. (The final deadline will be Jan. 4.)
First-place winners in each category will earn $500 and a framed certificate. They also receive complimentary lodging for two nights and registration for the annual conference, March 14-17, in Boston.
The contest features 12 topic-based categories (with entries competing head-to-head no matter whether they appeared in magazines, newspapers, trade publications or on radio or television stations or website). Entries can include a wide range of health coverage. The categories are:
Health Policy (large and small divisions)
* Public Health (large and small divisions)
* Business (large division and small divisions)
* Investigative (large division and small divisions)
* Consumer/Feature (large division and small divisions)
* Beat Reporting (all sizes)
Also, check out AHCJ’s healthjournalism.org website for information about Fellowships they offer to attend their 2013 conference in March. The offer travel fellowships to the meeting for ethnic media, rural health reporters and media in California and Missouri (via foundations n those states.)
For more information about applying for a fellowship, contact
Ev Ruch-Graham,
ev@healthjournalism.org
or 573-884-8103.
***The Media Awards Entry Deadline
for the Council on Contemporary Families (CCF) will be Jan. 18. Thanks to Gen Beat writer
Ashton Applewhite
for tipping GBO off on this one. She noted that CCF’s 11th annual award will recognize outstanding coverage of family issues “broadly defined, which certainly includes age-related issues.”
For coverage during calendar year 2012, the Council will present two awards for journalism in text form (print- or web-based); and one for broadcast journalism (audio or video) at the Sixteenth Annual CCF Conference, April 5, at the University of Miami Alumni Center.
Writers, editors, and producers may self-nominate; CCF members are also encouraged to submit nominations. Submissions may include: video and radio submissions must not exceed 30 minutes; written submissions must not exceed 2,000 words (excerpts are acceptable); a series that covers a particular issue over time is eligible. Past winners have included journalists from a range of media outlets, such as USA Today, Time, Boston Globe, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Baltimore Urbanite, KPCC (Southern California Public Radio), Thirteen/WNETand AlterNet. For information about the media awards, contact Shannon Davis, chair, CCF Media Committee, George Mason University Department of Sociology and Anthropology: sdaviso@gmu.edu; 703-993-1443
CCF’s 16th Annual Conference, April 5-6, 2013, will focuses on “Immigrant Families as They Really Are.” A detailed program will be available soon at www.contemporaryfamilies.org.
Founded in 1996 and based at the U of Miami, CCF is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of family researchers, mental health and social practitioners, and clinicians dedicated to providing the press and public with the latest research and best practice findings about American families. For more information, or to receive future fact sheets and briefing papers from the Council, CCF invites reporter to contact none other than author and widely respected commentator Stephanie Coontz, co-chair and director of Research and Public Education of CCF and Professor of History and Family Studies at The Evergreen State College. coontzs@msn.com; 360-352-8117.
*** Alzheimer’s Association Media Outreach in No. California —
The Alzheimer’s Association’s Northern California is inviting reporters on aging in the region, especially ethnic media that reaches their communities in languages other than English, to attend their annual half-day meeting on Friday, Dec. 14, 10 a.m.– 2 p.m. Their communications staff plans to discuss ethnic and in-language media (especially Spanish-language media).
The Northern California and Northern Nevada Chapter serves Alzheimer’s families from Fresno up to the Oregon border and the upper third of Nevada. Their Communications Director Patty Guinto, e-mailed, “A priority for the organization is reaching out to diverse communities, because African Americans, Asians and Latinos are at higher risk for the disease. In addition, many ethnic groups have lower access to health care and information– not to mention Alzheimer’s is a disease that has much stigma and shame attached to it.”
Nationally, she said, “More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease. One in eight people over age 65 will get the disease and almost half of people over age 85 will get succumb to the brain stealing affliction. It is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. and the only cause of death in the top 10 with no cure, no means of prevention, no way to even slow the disease.” Guinto is always handy with good stats.
As much as discuss their issues with reporters, she said the group wants to pick their brains about such things as “what is the best type of story/spokesperson to provide? What is the demand or barrier (if any) to covering topics about health, caregiving and the elderly? What are reporters interested in?”
Reporters can participate by phoning in or attending in person at their Lafayette office in the East Bay across the bay from San Francisco. They’ll have lunch for those turning up live. Those interested should contact Guinto at pguinto@alz.org or 650.623.3124.