Media Channeling Conservative Talking Points on Stimulus Debate?

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, January 26, 2009

CONTACT
Brandon Hersh
(202) 471-3205 bhersh@mediamatters.org

Media Channeling Conservative Talking Points on Stimulus Debate?
Coverage of president's economic recovery plan cites CBO report but ignores its flaws

Washington, D.C. - Media Matters for America has recently documented several media outlets uncritically reporting Republican claims that the spending proposals in President Barack Obama's economic recovery plan would take years before having an effect on the economy. These claims stemmed from a leaked Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis that failed to analyze the plan in its entirety. Indeed, a letter from Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag refuted the CBO analysis and said that by his office's estimations, "at least 75 percent of the overall package" would be spent over the next year and a half.

"With so much on the line, one would expect the media to give the public a complete picture of how and when the president's economic recovery package will be spent," said Karl Frisch, a senior fellow at Media Matters. "If the media are going to continue to reference Republican claims about the Congressional Budget Office analysis, it is their responsibility to also inform the public of its obvious flaws."

As Media Matters noted, several media outlets have ignored Orszag's letter in reporting on Republican claims about the CBO analysis. The Huffington Post additionally reported that while a very limited CBO analysis did run a small portion of the economic recovery package through a computer program to estimate how quickly the money would be spent, it analyzed only about $300 billion of the $825 billion plan, and the estimates were based on an outdated version of the plan. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the analysis reflected "a snapshot in time that's long past." A CBO analysis that will look at the latest version of Obama's economic recovery plan is expected this week.

BACKGROUND:

CNN's Henry advanced GOP criticism of stimulus package based on purported CBO "study," ignored Dems' response

http://mediamatters.org/items/200901240003

Summary: On Lou Dobbs Tonight, Ed Henry reported that a "study" from the Congressional Budget Office "was suggesting that a lot of the spending proposals in the original [economic stimulus] plan would not really take effect for a couple of years, so it wouldn't clearly help create jobs in the first two years of the president's administration." However, the director of the Office of Management and Budget stated in a letter that his agency's "analysis indicates that at least 75 percent of the overall package ... will be spent over the next year and a half" -- which Henry did not report.

Wash. Post reported investor concern over partial analysis of recovery package, but not rebuttal

http://mediamatters.org/items/200901240005

Summary: The Washington Post reported, "Ed Yardeni, president and chief investment strategist at Yardeni Research, said he was skeptical of the stimulus package because much of the spending in it may come well after the crisis is over, as a report from the Congressional Budget Office has suggested." But the Post did not include a response from the Obama administration or the Democratic leadership anywhere in the same edition of the newspaper.

NBC's Chuck Todd reports CBO criticism of stimulus, but not Democrats' response

http://mediamatters.org/items/200901220017

Summary: On NBC's Nightly News, Chuck Todd reported that President Obama "drew more criticism from Republicans [...] thanks to a new report claiming the stimulus will take years, not months, to improve the economy" and aired a clip of House Minority Leader John Boehner criticizing the stimulus plan. However, Todd did not mention the Democratic leadership's response: that the Congressional Budget Office report ignored faster-moving provisions in the stimulus, creating a "false impression" of the plan's effects.

For more information on the media's coverage of President Obama's economic recovery plan, visit www.mediamatters.org.

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Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media. Media Matters for America is the first organization to systematically monitor the media for conservative misinformation every day, in real time. For more information, visit www.mediamatters.org