Media Downplay Class Warfare as 'GOP Victory'
By Ben Norton, FAIR
10 December 17
The fallacy of "neutral," "both sides" journalism rings loud and clear in
corporate media reporting on the Republican Party's tax plan. The GOP bill,
passed by the Senate in the early hours of December 2 and described by major
media outlets as a "tax cut," is in reality an explicit handout to large
companies and the ultra-rich that will actually increase taxes on
working-class Americans.
But under the cover of a shallow understanding of "balance," corporate media
have internalized the outlandish idea that it is "partisan," and thus not
"neutral," to acknowledge the undeniably destructive effects of particular
political policies. These inconvenient facts are hence not emphasized in
news reporting, and cannot be presented alone without being "balanced" with
an opposing perspective-even if that contrary view is demonstrably false.
In the case of the GOP legislation, which will slash the corporate tax rate
and add some $1.4 trillion to the national debt, the deception took a
variety of forms.
The primary distortion, as noted, was portraying the Senate GOP bill as a
massive "tax break." Headlines and reports spoke of "tax cuts" and "tax
breaks" vaguely, without indicating that the breaks were not for Americans
as a whole, but rather for corporations and the rich.
.Reuters (12/2/17): "Senate Approves Major Tax Cuts in Victory for Trump"
.New York Times (12/2/17): "Few Hurdles Left, GOP Is Confident Tax Cuts Will
Be Signed This Month"
.USA Today (12/2/17): "Senate Passes Huge Tax Cuts After Last-Minute
Changes; Conference With House Next"
By way of contrast, HuffPost (12/2/17) provided an apt corrective to the
vagueness: "Senate Passes Massive Tax Cuts for the Rich in Middle of the
Night." While The Atlantic (12/2/17) had a euphemistic main headline-"Senate
Republicans Pass Their Tax Cuts"-the subhead clarified: "The bill slashes
corporate tax rates, but millions of middle-class families could face tax
increases under the $1.47 trillion bill."
The Intercept (12/1/17) stressed further, "The GOP Plan Is the Biggest Tax
Increase in American History, by Far." After noting that the bill includes
some $6 trillion in tax reductions, largely for corporations and households
with annual incomes above $400,000 (i.e. the 1 Percent), reporter Ryan Grim
pointed out:
[The bill] gets referred to as only a $1.5 trillion cut because it raises
$4.5 trillion in taxes elsewhere. But the key question is who gets a tax
hike and who gets a tax cut. Put simply, the bulk of the tax cut is going
toward the rich, while the tax increases go to everybody else.
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan think tank,
reported that, "The lowest-earning three-fifths of Americans would pay more
on average in federal taxes, while the top 40 percent on average would
receive a tax cut," with the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans receiving an
average cut of more than $9,000.
The Institute added, "The legislation is described as tax reform but would
cut hundreds of billions of dollars in healthcare spending." The AARP
similarly warned that the Senate GOP bill would trigger up to $25 billion in
cuts to Medicare.
It would also add at least $1 trillion to the US federal deficit, according
to Congress' own Joint Committee on Taxation. The nonpartisan Penn Wharton
Budget Model estimate is even higher, at an additional $1.4 trillion in
government debt. This will no doubt be used to justify massive cuts in
social spending, including Social Security and Medicare, which leading
Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. Marco Rubio are already
promising to go after.
In other words, the Republican tax-deal-for-the-1-percent is nothing short
of class war: The working class will lose even more of the little wealth
that it has, and the capitalist class will reap all the benefits. The
legislation even includes a tax break for owners of private jets, along with
banks and oil companies.
Many reports did highlight some of these deleterious impacts of the tax plan
in the body of the story, but they buried the lead. And the majority of
Americans do not read past the headline.
Depicting a Working-Class Disaster as a 'Victory'
Another way corporate media whitewashed the undeniably destructive effects
of the Republican tax plan is by portraying it primarily as a "victory" for
Trump and the GOP:
.Washington Post (12/2/17): "Senate GOP Tax Bill Passes in Major Victory for
Trump, Republicans"
.BBC (12/2/17): "Tax Bill: Trump Victory as Senate Backs Tax Overhaul"
.AOL (12/2/17): "Trump Wins First Major Legislative Victory of Presidency as
Senate Passes Republicans' Tax Reform Bill"
.Guardian (12/4/17): "Markets Rally After Trump's Tax Victory"
It's striking how little this presentation-from "mainstream" media,
supposedly critical of Trump-diverged from that of right-wing outlets that
openly support Trump and the GOP, such as Fox News ("Trump Takes Victory Lap
After Senate Passes Tax Bill, Calls It 'Largest Tax Decrease.by Far,'"
12/2/17).
The contradiction was highlighted in a SFGate report (12/2/17) with a
headline focused on political gamesmanship-"Senate Narrowly Passes GOP Tax
Overhaul Bill in Major Victory for Trump"-but a lead that acknowledged the
losses for regular people:
Securing a desperately sought legislative victory for the Trump presidency,
the Senate approved a $1.5 trillion tax overhaul Saturday morning that
provides massive tax cuts to large corporations and wealthy individuals but
could lead to higher tax bills for millions of Californians.
So why not headline the bill's impact on the vast majority of people? Why
showcase the Trump victory angle?
ABC News (12/4/17) likewise exhibited these contradictions within one
broadcast. In a segment titled "Tax Bill Seen as Victory by Trump, GOP,"
the host said, "Right now the bill is pretty unpopular," without explaining
why or providing any further information.
"This is a big legislative win, the most significant one for the Trump
administration thus far, and this is something to take home to your
constituents," declared ABC analyst Meghan McCain. The daughter of
neoconservative Sen. John McCain even referred to the Republican Party as
"we."
It was not until further in the segment that ABC analyst Matthew Dowd noted,
"Seventy percent of the benefits of this tax bill go to the very wealthy,
the top 1 or 2 percent of the country." Refuting the title of the segment,
Dowd added:
This may be a legislative victory, but it's not a political victory. It's an
unpopular bill, the most unpopular tax bill ever passed, pushed by an
unpopular president, passed by an unpopular Congress.
More and More Euphemisms
The ubiquitous term "tax reform" (e.g., CNN, 12/2/17; The Hill, 12/4/17;
Politico, 12/5/17; CNBC, 12/5/17) has a misleadingly benevolent
connotation-who doesn't like reform?-so long as media don't ask who benefits
and who is harmed. Likewise other headline language, such as "tax overhaul"
or "revision," that fails to reflect the different impacts of Republicans'
plan:
.Reuters (12/2/17): "US Senate Approves Republicans' Tax Overhaul"
.CBS (12/2/17): "Tax Bill: Senate Passes Sweeping Tax Overhaul in Early
Morning Vote"
.Wall Street Journal (12/2/17): "Senate Passes Sweeping Revision of US Tax
Code"
With euphemisms like "mixed bag" and "mixed blessings," several outlets
seemed to gesture weakly toward the massive assault on working-class
Americans. Reuters (12/2/17) reported that the "sweeping tax overhaul" will
move "Republicans and President Donald Trump a major step closer to their
goal of slashing taxes for businesses and the rich while offering everyday
Americans a mixed bag of changes." The Washington Post (12/2/17) noted the
bill "bestows extensive benefits on corporate America and the wealthy while
delivering mixed blessings to everybody else."
That "everybody else" is reduced to a subordinate clause perfectly
represents how corporate media's pretense of "balance" barely veils their
reflexive positioning on the side of the rich.
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