Selling Social Security (Down the River)

An Eric Alterman essay on how the corporate news media are rigging the debate over Social Security privatization in the Republicans' favor, from the Center for American Progress:

In its coverage of what is sure to be the Bush administration's signature program for 2005, the media has largely been content to rely on the interested commentary of government spokespeople and its partisans in conservative think tanks. On a "NewsNight with Aaron Brown," report recently misleadingly entitled "Social Security is in Trouble," CNN's Bruce Morton quoted Republican Senator Lindsey Graham together with pro-privatization activists from the Concord Coalition and the Cato Institute. Notably, no anti-privatization voices were aired during his report. Graham was also trotted out as the voice of privatization (or "reform" in the language of its supporters and a compliant press) by CNN anchor, Lou Dobbs, during which he claimed—unchallenged— "Social Security is going bankrupt, it's coming apart at the seams…We're short of money to pay the benefits. If we do nothing, the cost will be trillions, if we do something progressive, the cost can be managed. But to do nothing is a death blow to Social Security."

Instead of questioning the truth of Graham's statements, which are wholly unsupported by either CBO or Social Security's own data, Republican political contributor, Dobbs simply walked Graham right into his next talking point, saying "Let's talk about the idea of private accounts…" If Dobbs had done his homework, he would know that in fact the nation is not short on "money to pay the benefits." Those journalists who have done their homework on this issue are not so easily taken in. It's not as if the administration's misinformation campaign is not easy to debunk. In a news analysis, The Los Angeles Times's Joel Havermann did so with a simple rational examination of the facts. Blogger Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly also points out that projections in 1994 held that Social Security would go bankrupt in 2029, while current projections say that the point at which full benefits can no longer be paid will come 38 years from now, in 2042. There is no evidence that the program will go bankrupt, as Graham and others insist, but only that benefits will be cut so retirees receive 73 percent of full benefits after 2042.

Even so, the march of misinformation continues unimpeded.

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