Fox News and PBS NewsHour lead in media attacks on benefits for veterans, the poor, the elderly, the jobless, and the uninsured

Photo courtesy of Awarenessmonthsblog.

 

It takes a Brit to explain precisely what Americans mean by the word “entitlement” these days as Fox News and the PBS NewsHour, representing both the right and the left in the U.S. media join forces in their zeal to cast Social Security and Medicare as the sole villains in Washington’s deficit crisis.

Sadhbh Walshe at the Guardian points out, “Entitlements, to the uninitiated, include such things as unemployment benefits for the jobless, food stamps for the hungry, social security payments for the elderly and basic healthcare for the uninsured.”

Now that we know in general who our media is so eagerly blaming for the nation’s budget problems, here’s a Fox News clip from Sean Hannity’s recent interview of House Speaker John Boehner:

HANNITY: Not yet. Does his budget as I go through it, assumes a growth rate of four to five percent, which a lot of people including myself think it is a little bit unrealistic. And on the issue of the biggest spending items which is entitlements, he didn't touch the entitlement issue. Do you think that was done purposely?

BOEHNER: I don't know why it wasn't addressed. He created a deficit reduction commission a year ago. They've reported in December. But none of the ideas out of his own deficit reduction commission were part of his budget process. And again, I think the president has a responsibility here. He wasn't elected to just sit there in the oval office. He was elected to lead. And if he won't lead, we will. And I expect this spring when we put our budget together, Paul Ryan and the Budget Committee will in fact put everything on the table.

Over at PBS, Judy Woodruff makes sure that the NewsHour is aligned with Fox in bipartisan media efforts to vilify those awful “entitlements,” in contrast to our partisan political leaders. The title of her piece is Risking Common Ground in a Partisan-Dominated Budget Battle.

To start with, Woodruff wants us to know that many of America’s elderly are too ignorant and uninformed to understand their Social Security and Medicare benefits are paid by the government:

Reading public opinion polls that show most Americans who benefit from government programs - like home mortgage deductions, veterans' pensions, Medicare and Social Security -- often don't even realize the government is the source.

 Woodruff doesn’t bother to explain that those same ignorant Social Security recipients paid into the system throughout their working lives or that the government has raided the so-called Social Security “lockbox” to bankroll its everyday expenses, including two wars of choice, without taxing the wealthiest Americans or closing the tax loopholes for major corporations.

But speaking of risk, being fair to the nation’s elderly might put at risk the subsidy the NewsHour receives from the U.S. government.