Posted on 02/20/2011 9:18:35 PM PST by lbryce
In 2009 and 2010 the New York Times covered protests against the Obama administration’s stimulus spending bill and health care plan as the barely legal revolt of an unwashed and uncivil band of reactionaries determined not only to halt what the paper considered progress but also to thwart democracy. But anyone looking at the Times’ front page article on Saturday describing protests against the effort by Wisconsin’s newly elected governor and legislature to balance the state’s books got a very different view of a protest movement.
According to the Times, the activities of the Wisconsin public sector unions — whose expensive benefits have put their state on the brink of bankruptcy — are nothing less than the moral equivalent of the demonstrations in Tunisia that brought down an authoritarian dictatorship. As the headline “Wisconsin Leads the Way as Workers Fight Cuts” indicates, the whole focus of the piece is an effort to portray the unions and their Democratic allies as revolutionaries who are on the cutting edge of a movement that will, in effect, reverse the verdict of last year’s election.
There are two points to be made about this coverage.
First, the portrayal of the unions and their Democratic Party allies, who have attempted not so much to defeat the Republican program but to prevent the legislature from even meeting to vote, as the progressive movement that represents the will of the people is absurd. This fight is about the will of the people but it is the public sector unions and the Democrats who are trying to thwart that will. As is the case with many other states, Wisconsin is going broke because past governments have let public employee unions have their way in collective bargaining. The result is an extraordinarily generous package of health-care
(Excerpt) Read more at commentarymagazine.com ...
No surprise, and fortunately it won’t matter either.
Aside from slobbering journalists and liberal politicians, the Times is rapidly becoming obsolete.
Just think - in 15 years we’ve come to the point where a cheesy flashing beacon on the Drudgereport - a site run by a guy who formerly operated a gift shop - has as much influence on the national discussion as a front page story in the New York Times.
Balanced coverage would have reminded the reader that we live in a representative Republic and that the citizens of Wisconsin spoke loudly at the ballot box last November. But, then again, this is the NYT ...
The Democrats in the Wisconsin legislature who fled the State have abgrogated their duties and responsibilities as public servants. They should have remained in Madison and tried to cut the best deal they could under the circumstances.
Bump
You’re quoting “The New York Times?”
Didn’t that used to be a newspaper?
Sorry. I don’t care what the NYT says.
Saturday’s paper? Take a look at Sunday’s NYT front page. Not even a mention of Wisconsin! LOL! Libs are soooo transparent! Like, what, is something happening in WI?
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