the blog of DC Drinking Liberally

December 6, 2005

Right-Wing Talking Points du Jour

by

One of the themes I notice as I glance through the websites of our colleagues on the right, is that the MSM (that’s the Mainstream Media, if you don’t know, which the right believes to exclusively pander to the promotion of liberalism, failed tax-and-spend rhetoric, bloated governments, and Hillary Clinton) is being mean. The MSM, so the accusation goes, is filtering out all the good news about the economy. Occasionally, the MSM slips up and lets a little good news out, but they have to say something mean right afterwards.

Like this bit from the NYT:

Productivity rose at its fastest pace in two years in the third quarter, far more quickly than earlier predicted, as output rose and labor costs fell, the government reported today.

As a measure of how much the economy produced per hour of work, business productivity rose 4.7 percent outside the farming sector from July to September, compared with an earlier reading of 4.1 percent, the Labor Department reported. Real hourly compensation, which adjusts wages and other benefits for inflation, fell 1.4 percent, unchanged from previous estimates.

See? They could have just said productivity rose, validating trickle-down Bushanomics, but instead, they have to point out that wages fell. The liberal media is so mean. Whine, rinse, and repeat.

Meanwhile, the cost of living here in the District is not falling. Take this WaPo article from November:

The report, commissioned by the Fannie Mae Foundation, cited indicators that even people with good jobs are finding it harder to secure an affordable place to live. And it is not only the cost of a house that has gone up: D.C. rents have risen more sharply than those in the area overall. One reason is supply. In the first half of this year, 2,500 apartment units were converted to condominiums, triple the number for all of 2004.

Though home sales have slowed in recent weeks, the report said it is unlikely that home prices will drop enough to enable many more lower- or moderate-income families to buy. More likely, it said, would be a stagnation that would soften high-end real estate prices for a while.

So, tell me. What part of salaries falling while housing costs soar out of control are our friends on the right missing?

post a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.

About

DCDL is a blog by Washington, DC-area members of Drinking Liberally. Opinions expressed are the writers’, not those of Drinking Liberally, which provides no funding or other support for this blog.

Upcoming Events

See information on the revived DC chapter (2012).

DCDL Member Blogs

DCDL Speaker Links

DC Links

Liberal (Mostly) Blogs

Liberal Groups

Internal Links

Contact

keith@dcdl.org

Drinking Liberally

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

Categories

Search Blog

Archives

Geekery

46 queries. 0.880 seconds