Poverty

New Republic Writer: Baltimore’s Problems Worsened Because Liberals Bought Into Conservative Policies
By Tom Johnson | May 2, 2015 | 1:59 PM EDT

All week, liberals and conservatives have accused each other of causing the longstanding socioeconomic woes of Baltimore. TNR's Rebecca Leber had a subtler take in a Friday piece: she put part of the blame on liberals, but only because they went along with conservative ideas.

“Democrats exacerbated these problems [in Baltimore] not by embracing the policies of the left. Rather, they dug the hole deeper by yawing to the right,” contended Leber. “Aggressive policing, tougher drug sentencing, slashing the budgets of school and public housing and parks—throughout Baltimore’s history, lawmakers at the local, state, and federal level adopted policies that entrenched poverty and segregation in the city.”

Michael Eric Dyson: Ravens, Orioles to Blame for Baltimore Urban Blight
By Matt Philbin | April 28, 2015 | 10:16 AM EDT

Professional race explainer Michael Eric Dyson said a lot of stupid things on MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes Monday. (Yes, it’s still on the air.) And really, that’s understandable, given that his job was to find excuses for the inexcusable violence and looting in Baltimore.

But mixed in with his litany of exculpatory urban dysfunction (“… the slow terror of expulsions from schools, rising rates of lead poisoning, the export of jobs to, uh, places across the waters …”) and awful metaphors (“it’s easy to point a gun of analysis and shoot [the rioters] with the bullets of our condemnation”) he managed to lash out at … professional sports.

Rachel Maddow: Baltimore Police ‘A Little Out of Control’ During Riots
By Jeffrey Meyer | April 28, 2015 | 7:51 AM EDT

During the 9:00 hour of MSNBC’s live coverage of the ongoing Baltimore riots on Monday night, Rachel Maddow accused the city’s police of being “a little out of control” for returning items being thrown at them by protestors: "But if they're picking up things that are being thrown at them and throwing things back, that implies to me just as a lay observer that the police feel -- that the police are a little out of control, or they may not be necessarily using disciplined police tactics."

Eonline.com Hypes, Airbrushes Paltrow's 'Failed' 'Food Stamp Challenge'
By Tom Blumer | April 21, 2015 | 11:52 AM EDT

Readers who have seen my previous posts on actress Gwyneth Paltrow's recent "failed" attempt to complete the deceptively designed "Food Stamp Challenge" know far more than people who rely on Eonline.com ever will.

Although it's far from encouraging when contemplating our nation's future, what we have here is an object lesson in how the entertainment press airbrushes the truth to polish the image of a celebrity who is either breathtakingly ignorant or in on the scam.

NYT Reporter Turned Columnist Cheers Traffic-Blocking Left-Wing Protest in Manhattan
By Clay Waters | April 20, 2015 | 9:21 PM EDT

Chris Christie who? Rachel Swarns, who for years fawned over Barack and Michelle Obama for the New York Times, wrote an "open letter" column to actor Adam Baldwin in defense of a left-wing group which tied up traffic in mid-town Manhattan in the name of a $15-an-hour "living wage."

'Newscaster' Soledad O'Brien Shushed Crowd at Lefty Earth Day Concert
By Tim Graham | April 20, 2015 | 2:41 PM EDT

Washington Post music critic Chris Richards wrote up Saturday’s Earth Day festivities on the national Mall on the front of Monday’s Style section. The headline was “At Earth Day rally, it was the message that needed saving.”

Richards liked the music, but didn’t like the talking. For example: “The event’s hosts, newscaster Soledad O’Brien and Black Eyed Peas bandleader Will.I.Am, appeared to have a rough time of it. O’Brien, either frustrated by glitchy teleprompters or perhaps not clear on how a concert works, actually shushed the crowd at one point.”

'Failed' Gwyneth Paltrow Was Actually on Track to Succeed in 'Food Stamp Challenge'
By Tom Blumer | April 19, 2015 | 2:19 PM EDT

As yours truly noted on April 12, actress Gwyneth Paltrow made a bit of a splash earlier this month when she announced that she would add her name to the list of ignorant politicians, advocates and celebrities taking on the deceptively designed "Food Stamp Challenge."

The idea is to "try to survive" eating for a week on the average benefit a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipient receives. The objective is to prove that it really can't be done, thereby "proving" that food stamp benefits are too low. Of course, that's what Paltrow claims occurred, with MSNBC.com hyping how she "succeeded by failing." As was the case with an Indiana journalist several months ago, based on the spending figure Paltrow herself disclosed, she was not failing at all. Based on how the program really works, she would have succeeded had she stuck with it.

WashPost Reporter Criticizes ‘Mean Spirited’ Kansas Welfare Law
By Jeffrey Meyer | April 19, 2015 | 9:11 AM EDT

On Saturday, MSNBC’s Alex Witt hosted Washington Post reporter Elahe Izadi to blast a new Kansas law that would limit what items welfare recipients could purchase using their taxpayer benefits. Izadi asserted many call the law “mean spirited” and then touted how “some advocates feel like lawmakers are basically saying the poor can't be trusted to manage their own money."

CNN, While Showing a 'Vintage' Car: 'See Cuba Before American Investors Ruin It'
By Tom Blumer | April 14, 2015 | 4:13 PM EDT

Journalists' and leftists' (but I repeat myself) misguided love for Cuba goes back decades. Y'know, free healthcare (cough), yada-yada.

Now that President Obama is unilaterally changing the relationship between the two nations, and as usual getting nothing in return, you'd think that they'd be happy. Heck no. It started several months ago when Fox News's Shepard Smith fretted about how a thaw in U.S.-Cuban relations might "ruin the place," and has been echoed in many quarters since then. Early today, CNN International went over the top, essentially communicating in one picture their concern that the changed situation will "ruin" what has already been ruined:

Bill Daley: 'Uneven' Recovery Has Only Benefited 'A Small Slice'
By Tom Blumer | April 13, 2015 | 4:07 PM EDT

Well, this is awkward.

Undermining most of what the business press has done to try to portray the post-recession U.S. economy as performing adequately under President Barack Obama, Bill Daley, Obama’s former chief of staff, told CNBC today that Hillary Clinton "can’t run as the third term of Barack Obama economically," because the recovery has been "uneven" and has only benefited "a small slice" of U.S. households.

CNN Hypes Gwyneth Paltrow's 'Food Stamp Challenge' Participation — And Its Bogus Benchmark
By Tom Blumer | April 12, 2015 | 4:50 PM EDT

On Saturday, CNN hyped actress and self-appointed "lifestyle guru" Gwyneth Paltrow's participation in the "Food Stamp Challenge." This is the fundamentally dishonest campaign which has been working for at least eight years to convince Americans that benefits provided under the federal government's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are inadequate.

As usual, Paltrow has taken up the challenge to get by for a week on a drastically understated amount which does not reflect the program's real provisions. As has almost always been the case with journalists covering politicians, celebrities and others who have taken up the "challenge," CNN's Jareen Imam didn't question the correctness of the weekly amount involved:

AP Covers Up Japan's Likely Slippage Into Another Economic Contraction
By Tom Blumer | April 8, 2015 | 10:39 AM EDT

In an early Wednesday morning report containing an undercurrent of amazement and frustration that Japan's journey into Keynesianism and quantitative easing on steroids somehow hasn't worked, the Associated Press's Elaine Kurtenback wrote that a steep "April 1, 2014 sales tax hike ... triggered a brief recession and growth since has been flat."

The Land of the Rising Sun with the long-stagnating economy should be so lucky. Six days ago, the Wall Street Journal reported something Kurtenbach should have known when she submitted her writeup, namely that the country is once again on the brink of slipping into contraction: