Real AP Headline: "Is GOP trying to sabotage economy to hurt Obama?"

The media has two modes of bias:

If something that hurts Obama can be spun in such a way as to negate its impact, they may report it-- with the spin, of course.

If something that hurts Obama is impossible to spin, then they ignore it entirely and hope no one hears about it, or that anyone who hears about it takes the press' silence as meaning the story has been debunked.

For example: The fact that Wright says an Obama crony offered him $150,000 to stop preaching until after the 2008 election. It can't be spun, so it simply gets embargoed.

The economy is a tricky thing for the press-- they can't ignore it, since it is on everyone's mind. Which means they'll have to spin it-- even if such spin is sort of absurd.

With that in mind:

Is GOP trying to sabotage economy to hurt Obama?

By CHARLES BABINGTON | Associated Press – Sat, May 19, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) — Are Republican lawmakers deliberately stalling the economic recovery to hurt President Barack Obama's re-election chances? Some top Democrats say yes, pointing to GOP stances on the debt limit and other issues that they claim are causing unnecessary economic anxiety and retarding growth.

The latest Democratic complaint came after House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday that when Congress raises the nation's borrowing cap in early 2013, he will again insist on big spending cuts to offset the increase. Boehner, R-Ohio, continues to reject higher tax rates, which Democrats demand from the wealthy.
That led Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to say Boehner is virtually assuring another debt-ceiling crisis as bad or worse than the one that shook financial markets nine months ago.

Intriguingly, apparently the AP has a major scoop that they aren't reporting for some reason. The AP seems to know it as a fact that Republicans know that Obama's prescription of borrowing and spending is precisely the right course for the economy (look at the wonders it's done for Greece!), but are refusing to do what they know will help the economy.

It couldn't be, for example, that Republicans think that further massive spending into bankruptcy will sink the country or anything.

No, AP knows (and yet knows this without explicitly saying so or providing evidence for their secret knowledge) that Republicans think Obama's spending plans are awesome, but is refusing to do awesome things just to hurt Obama.

posted by Open Blogger at 01:43 PM

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