Dean Baker Questions Reporting

Political spin is infamous. Psychologists have many experiements that show that "framing" can cause people to answer the same question different ways. Here's Dean Baker pointing out how the media is "framing" the health care debate and then acting "surprised" by the public response:

NPR Wonders Why Public Support for a Health Care Plan With a "Huge" Cost is Slipping

In its top of the hour news segment on Morning Edition Mora Liasson reported the results of a new poll showing dwindling support for President Obama's health care plan. Ms. Liasson noted pollster Stan Greenberg's assessment that people had heard about the program's "huge" $1 trillion price tag, but had not heard about the benefits of the program.

The program's huge price tag is equal to about 0.5 percent of projected GDP over the next decade. The Iraq war at its peak cost more than 1.0 percent of GDP. NPR and other news outlets rarely, if ever, referred to the "huge" cost of this war, which was twice the "huge" cost of President Obama's health care program. Perhaps the decision of supposedly neutral media sources to constantly warn that the costs of the program are "huge" has something to do with its dwindling public support.

Sadly, most people don't recognize the techniques that politicians, advertisers, and the media use to spin/frame/persuade followers/consumers/the public to adopt attitudes desired by the elite.