The Arizona Republic fails its readers

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Arizona Republic on Sunday published an Associated Press "analysis" by Nancy Benac and Calvin Woodward that it recaptioned President faced a difficult year. This AP "analysis" has been published around the country since December 20 under this caption, Obama's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Year – Fox Nation, taken from the lede of the article:

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year got off to a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad start.

It is the worst piece of political analysis I have read in quite some time. Just godawful. And I read lots of political analysis. This is what the Arizona Republic deems appropriate for its readers. What the hell is wrong with the editors? Actually, I suspect the piece reflects the political bias of the editors. Story selection and emphasis is an indicator of bias.

Steve Benen at The Washington Monthly comments:

The AP runs political analysis pieces I disagree with from time to time, but this week's piece on the White House is just a train-wreck.

The article Benen cites to is from Media Matters, AP, Please Define "Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Year":

Reading like it was pulled out of Rep. John Boehner's top desk drawer, the AP published a year-end 'analysis' of Obama's 2010. It's quite a piece of work. (i.e. Snowstorms are considered very bad news for the POTUS.)

The lede pretty much captures the GOP-friendly flavor:

Barack Obama's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year got off to a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad start.

Wow, that sounds bad, right?

For a little context though, please note that Obama's approval rating in the daily Gallup track poll today is 49 percent. Exactly one year ago it was 51 percent.

So again AP, can you please define "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year"?

(h/t Esquire)

There is good reason why I refer to the AP as "all propaganda." It has been part of the right-wing noise machine for many years. As has the Arizona Republic.

In an earlier post at The Washington Monthly, Steve Benen reminds readers that the preeminent political scientist:

Norman Ornstein had a very good piece a while back that characterized the 111th Congress as the most productive in 45 years.

That was in January 2010. [The starting point of the offending AP article above.]

In the 11 months since, policymakers have put together a record of success that rivals any two-year stretch in the modern era.

* * *

Ornstein noted yesterday, "This is the most dysfunctional political environment that I have ever seen. But then you have to juxtapose that with [this Congress being] one of, at least, the three most productive Congresses" since 1900. He added that the 111th "edges the Great Society" in terms of accomplishments.

* * *

[T]he historic record is nevertheless undeniable. It's hard to even know where to start.

We are, after all, talking about a two-year span in which Democratic policymakers approved the Affordable Care Act, the Recovery Act, Wall Street reform and a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, student loan reform, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal, a critically important nuclear arms treaty with Russia, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the biggest overhaul of our food-safety laws in 70 years, new regulation of the credit card industry, new regulation of the tobacco industry, a national service bill, expanded stem-cell research, the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, net neutrality, the most sweeping land-protection act in 15 years, health care for 9/11 rescue workers, and some other accomplishments I'm probably forgetting.*

All of this was accomplished in the midst of multiple crises here and around the world, and for the first time in American history, with mandatory supermajorities in the U.S. Senate. And don't get me started on the disaster Dems inherited — Great Recession, two deadly wars, a jobs crisis, a massive deficit and budget mess, crushing debt, etc. — after the spectacular Republican failures of the Bush/Cheney era.

Some of the recent victories have been decades in the making — in the case of health care reform, politicians have been talking about a major overhaul for a full century — but it took this Congress and this president to get it done.

* * *

* I forgot the child-nutrition bill, expanded S-CHIP, and the confirmation of two Supreme Court justices.

I would add the rescue of the financial system from total collapse, prevented the American automobile industry and the ten percent of the American economy which relies upon it from disappearing, and most importantly, prevented the Second Great Depression. There is now growing optimism for an economic recovery.

President Obama and the Democratic 111th Congress have enjoyed an historical record of success over the past two years. But no good deed ever goes unpunished.

The role of the right-wing noise machine is to tell you that the last two years have been a disaster, after it ignored the disastrous Bush administration. Such is the nature of Orwellian propaganda: up is down, black is white, war is peace, etc. Now historic success is a "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year."

You shouldn't have to read this kind of propaganda "analysis" in the Arizona Republic, or anywhere else for that matter. You have the right to demand better. Make your complaints heard.