In a press conference announcing a deal passed to stop the FAA shut down, Democrats came to the podium with talking points about Republican “hostage takers.” But ABC News’ Jonathan Karl insisted on asking them why they didn’t just pass this deal, which was offered by Republicans before the FAA was even shut down, before any “hostages” were “taken.”
Democrats were shocked that Mr. Karl would dare stray from the narrative.
This is painful to watch.
From Debra Saunders:
Wednesday, Democratic Senators and House Whip Steny Hoyer held a press conference to blame Republicans for the FAA shutdown. Thursday, after the press conference, they announced a deal. This morning, the Senate voted to a pass bill it could have passed in order to avoid the 13-day FAA shutdown.
The press condference was instructive. You can see the Dems expected the media to parrot their recalcitrant-Republican talking point, while ignoring their choice to not pass a temporary extension because it included $16.5 million in cuts to a pork-rich rural airport program.
Instead they were shocked and angered when ABC’s Jonathan Karl asked some pointed questions.
Democrats wanted to leave the press and the public with the impression that Republicans are a bunch of extremists. Instead, the public is left with the impression of a bunch of tax-and-spend liberals who won’t even go along with modest cuts in pork spending in a time of a budget crisis.
But usually the media takes the lead in spreading Dem’s good news while burying any bad news.
Like CNN over the last three weeks:
E-mails are sent out that make the stock market’s actions seem so good (when it is good) ….or at least so general that it seems not so bad when it was a disaster.
Compare those linked emails with the facts:
Week of July 22:
Dow, +201 pts. (+1.6%)
S&P 500, +29 pts. (+2.2%)
NASDAQ, +69 pts. (+2.5%)
Week of July 29:
Dow, -538 pts. (-4.2%)
S&P 500, -53 pts. (-3.9%)
NASDAQ, -102 pts. (-3.6%)
Week of August 5:
Dow, -699 pts. (-5.8%)
S&P 500, -93 pts. (-7.2%)
NASDAQ, -224 pts. (-8.1%)
$16.5 million to keep rural airports open represents a “pork-rich program”, but $5 billion in direct farm subsidy payments made for simply owning tillable land doesn’t?
Guess which of the two annual expenditures was perfectly OK with the new republican-majority House.