Ace notes something [1] that I had observed yesterday, but didn’t have the time to comment on, given the events:
BizzyBlog corrects a bit and notes that the NYT (accidentally!) put a brief AP blurb about the story on page A22, [2] but I’m going to count that cleanly as “not reporting the story.” A22 is where you bury stories. Certainly no NYT journalistic resources were devoted to the story.
Two Sundays ago Howie Kurtz asked representatives of the Washington Post and CNN why the plunge in Iraqi deaths (and US servicemen’s death) had gotten almost no play at all in the MSM. They robotically claimed it was because they couldn’t be sure the trend would hold. Though they agreed that if deaths rose, that was automatically a story, no need for a “stable trend line” to be newsworthy.
The deficit figures put lie to this claim. Check out BizzyBlog’s chart and there is no doubt whatsoever that we have a sustained five-year trend. Five years. Consistent trend. And yet the media will claim they’re not reporting on this because… hmm, the likely candidate is that it’s such an obvious trend that it doesn’t need to be reported at all. It’s just “more of the same,” which is not newsworthy.
Of course, the reason that it’s not getting printed, is again, that it doesn’t fit the narrative. The usual narrative, for situations like this use the Republican tax cuts cause deficits. Obviously, it’s not true. Equally obvious is the idea that the mainstream media, who traditionally pitches for liberal ideas and ideals, doesn’t want to admit the truth by actually reporting it.