Lousy media coverage of economic issues draws rebuke from Pulitzer-winning journalist

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston offers a scathing indictment of contemporary journalism:

[W]e are failing in our core mission of providing people with the knowledge they need for our democracy to function.

Increasingly what I see are news reports evidencing a basic lack of knowledge about government. And this isn't happening just with beat reporters but with the assignment and copy editors who are supposed to review stories before they get into print or on the air.

Far too much of journalism consists of quoting what police, prosecutors, politicians and publicists say—and this is especially the case with beat reporters. It's news on the cheap and most of it isn't worth the time it takes to read, hear or watch.

Much of what passes for reporting about government these days is not only information that is useless, it is laughable nonsense, and I have the coffee stains on my robe to prove it. Every morning I read "Beat the Press" on the Center for Economic and Policy Research website, which is liberal economist Dean Baker's critique of the economic theory, policy and “facts” he finds on the front pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other media outlets. Baker routinely picks apart articles that are as far from reality as a weather story that says the sun rose in the West.

Sometimes I send these criticisms on to the ombudsman or top editors of the offending publications. I have even put together packages showing from the newspaper's own clips that what was printed is utterly false. But I rarely see any corrections made nor any insistence that writers actually know what they are writing about when it comes to government policy, economic policy, taxes or treaties.

There's more, and it's well worth a read. If you have any doubt of the validity of Johnston's critique, take a look at some recent examples:

CNNMoney can't find room for facts amid corporate attacks on Dems

The LA Times' poor reporting on the rich

The Washington Post's GOP-friendly budget reporting

The Washington Post can't be bothered with facts

Washington Post shills for “regressive” budget plan

CJR's Salmon: New York Times “Budget Puzzle” skewed in favor of the rich

Four problems with the New York Times' deficit calculator

Gloria Borger cannot be serious

Johnston's point that media coverage of public policy is so often so very wrong that it suggests the media don't know anything about the topics they cover is one I've made many times. If you're interested in more, you might start here, here, here, here, here, here, or here.