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    Executive Summary

America 2012

What the next president’s first term will do to energy, health care and your wallet – and how the media are making it worse.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
By Nathan Burchfiel

     The economy is now the only real issue on voters’ minds. Wall Street has lost nearly 5,000 points from its high of a year ago and billion-dollar “bailouts” have become commonplace. More than half of Americans said in a September 2008 CBS News/New York Times poll that the economy and jobs are the most important issues in the 2008 presidential election. The two candidates differ greatly on economic issues – from Obama’s planned tax hikes to McCain’s push to end earmarks. But the media – especially ABC, CBS and NBC – have spun the economy as a winning issue for the left and are using economic troubles to push an agenda of liberal policies.

    Most federal policies influence the economy, but five in particular earned special media attention during the 2008 campaign: a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions, government mandates of ethanol, earmark spending, taxes and health care. The Business & Media Institute (BMI) analyzed how the media supported the liberal proposals for these issues.

BMI also sought input from its Board of Advisers – including policy experts and economists – on how the policies, if enacted as proposed on the campaign trail, would affect the U.S. economy.

As president, Barack Obama will face a friendly media that have already taken strong stands on the issues. BMI analyzed coverage of these five major issues between Jan. 1, 2008, and Sept. 30, 2008. That analysis showed the media:

  •        Promoted Anti-Market Carbon Cap-and-Trade Plans. Obama and McCain support a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions to make energy more expensive. Journalists have supported those efforts by hyping “global warming” and failing to investigate the potential effects of the proposals. The broadcast networks mentioned “global warming” or “climate change” nearly 500 times, but have mentioned the expensive “cap-and-trade policy” pushed by both candidates only 18 times – less than 4 percent. Only 3 of those stories mentioned costs.

  •        Failed to Blame Ethanol Mandates For Rising Food and Fuel Prices. Katie Couric once declared ethanol the “wave of the future,” but the media finally have connected the dots between ethanol and rising food prices. But of 86 stories on ethanol, only 4.7 percent (4 of 86) have connected increased demand to federal mandates – supported by Obama and opposed by McCain.

  •        Ignored Candidates’ Differences on Earmarks. Eliminating wasteful spending is a centerpiece of conservative fiscal policy, yet the media have sought to diminish McCain’s position on earmarks. Of 114 stories on earmarks, only two pointed toward the more than $1 billion in requests made by Obama and his running mate.

  •        Embraced Liberal “Class Warfare” Rhetoric. The networks have demonized tax relief for Americans. Of 218 stories mentioning tax cuts, more than one-fourth (56 of 218) characterized them as a “cost” to the government, siding with Obama, who has proposed raising some taxes. That’s almost double the number of stories that described them as a “relief” to taxpayers, which McCain proposes in a time of economic turmoil.

  •       Endorsed Government-Controlled Health Care. The media have bought into the liberal exaggeration that 47 million Americans are perpetually without health insurance – reporting the inflated statistic at least 18 times. The true number is between 10 and 20 percent of that claim. Networks have described Obama’s liberal plan to increase government control of the sector an “ambitious” way to “expand” and “improve” health care, but have largely ignored its costs. They’ve done the opposite in covering McCain’s conservative proposal, ignoring the benefits of McCain’s proposal and asking, “What’s wrong with government-run health care?”

 

Recommendations

     BMI has three recommendations for the media to improve their coverage of the campaigns – for the 2008 election to 2012 and beyond.

  •        Cover the Issues. Spend time covering the issues and the candidates’ positions, not the “horse race” or debate “performance.” Don’t fall victim to the sound-bite, class-warfare games candidates play. There is plenty of information to digest relating to important issues like taxes, spending, health care and environmental policy.

  •        Balance Analysis. Feature economists and policy experts who will help present both sides of the debate. Provide fair analysis of what the candidates’ plans will actually do to the size, cost and power of government – and to taxpayers.

  •        Don’t Give Government the Benefit of the Doubt. Don’t assume that government knows best. Acknowledge the government’s role in rising food prices through ethanol mandates and subsidies. Learn the lesson of increased government involvement in the mortgage market via Fannie and Freddie, and raise questions about how more government involvement in the health care market could have similar results.