Obama's Programming of the Press Has Unintended Consequences
Kevin Drum posts (sorry, I have to quote the whole post or it won't make sense):
From a Washington Post story about wage cutbacks:
Members and employees of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra are bracing for more hard times. The orchestra has had to contend with a $1.5 billion debt....The musicians were furloughed, and the administrative staff, including Johnson, took a 20 percent pay cut. The two moves saved the VSO about $500,000.
Not bad! At that rate they should have their debt paid off in another 3,000 years.
I know I'm being sort of prickish for even bringing this up, but seriously: at least one reporter and two editors worked on this piece, and apparently none of them were taken aback by the idea of a regional orchestra being $1.5 billion in debt. At any rate, not taken aback enough to wonder idly if maybe it was $1.5 million instead. Sheesh.
I don't know, Kevin. Your guy Obama proposed to deal with a trillion dollars of deficit by seeking $100 million of savings, and everyone in the press nodded their head and said how wonderful that Obama guy is. On a percentage basis, a $500,000 cut in a $1.5 billion debt is actually three times more impactful than what Obama proposed. Is it any wonder the press accepted these numbers without skepticism? Obama has trained them well.
