More media lies and misinformation

Our "journalists" have completely failed us in talking about Social Security and the role it plays in our economy and society.  They don't understand it, they don't bother to educate themselves about it, they simply parrot what the "important" people say, and they get to decide who is important.

William Greider: This is a staggering scandal for the media. I have yet to see a straightforward, non-ideological, non-argumentative piece in any major paper that describes the actual condition of Social Security. The core fact is that Social Security has not contributed a dime to the deficit, but has piled up trillions in surpluses, which the government has borrowed and spent. Social Security’s surpluses have actually offset the impact of the deficit, beginning with Reagan.

TL: Why don’t reporters report this?

WG: They identify with the wisdom of the elites who don’t want to talk about this—because if people understand that Social Security has a $2.5 trillion surplus, building toward more than $4 trillion, people will ask why are politicians trying to cut Social Security benefits?

And it gets worse from there.

TL: Is this different than in the past?

WG: Yes. In the last twenty years, as media ownership became highly concentrated, the gulf between the governing elites, both in and out of government, and the broad range of ordinary citizens has gotten much worse. The press chose to side with the governing elites and look down on the citizenry as ignorant or irrational, greedy, or even nutty. 

Read it all, so at least when they take it away you will know how it happened.  If you want to do something about it, start writing letters to the editor, start commenting on the newspaper articles.  Start making noise.  Maybe someone will hear.