CNN Parrots Lie About Dems & Social Security

On Inside Politics today, Judy Woodruff said "[The President] said I'm willing to listen to good ideas from either party. The American people look at this and they see the Democrats not even willing to come halfway, not even willing to engage in a conversation" about Social Security. She was claiming Democrats have offered no alternatives to Bush's plan to privatize Social Security, essentially parroting the same dishonest right-wing talking point that every Republican from the President on down is repeating.

I like Judy Woodruff, and she's usually responsible, but this is a complete travesty. Even the news writers at CNN should have time to do a quick Google or Lexis-Nexis search before repeating this drivel. It would take all of five seconds to find out how dishonest that GOP claim really is. As I noted last month, Democrats have already brought forward a number of serious, concrete legislative proposals to fix Social Security. For instance, Rep. David Obey (D-WI) has been pushing a plan endorsed by former Social Security Commissioner Robert Ball that would use the estate tax to fix the shortfall. Rep. Martin Sabo (D-MN) also has a proposal he introduced almost two months ago ago. Before that, Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Jerry Nadler (D-NY) each had different proposals. And remember - these are some of the most senior Democrats in Congress - not a bunch of nobodies.

The person who has not introduced a concrete legislative proposal is President Bush. All he's done is spend millions of taxpayer dollars gallivanting all over America saying "personal accounts" (aka. privatization). Even his mention of cutting benefits last night wasn't a serious, concrete legislative proposal.

Look, I am the first person to call out Democrats when they sell out or do stupid things. But this is proof positive that there is a serious bias against them from the media, even when they are doing the right thing. That bias that makes it extraordinarily difficult for them to get any semblance of a message out. The more reporters ignore easy-to-find facts and instead repeat hollow, inaccurate talking points given to them by Republican press hacks, the more people will wrongly believe Democrats have offered no solutions. Additionally, the more the media blatantly ignores reality to create some false storyline it wants to tell, the more the American people will continue to view network news with disdain. And rightfully so.