MRC’s Year Of Talking Down The Ecomony To Hurt Biden

The Media Research Center spent a good part of last year talking down the ecomony — despite the fact that, by most traditional measures, it’s doing well — because such factually dubious trash talk is mandated by its right-wing anti-Biden agenda.After all, talking down the economy under Democratic presidents is what the MRC does, even when the economy is clearly improving. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and see how this has taken place.

A Feb. 21 post by Renata Kiss, for example, hyped one economist who foretold economic doom:

Former President Barack Obama’s National Economic Council Director sounded the alarm on the Federal Reserve’s inability to tame inflation and warned about “a collision or crash down the road.”

Economist Larry Summers warned the public in a Saturday interview with Bloomberg TV that the Fed’s interest rate hikes aren’t enough to cool inflation, yet he advised against hitting the brakes too hard. “The Fed’s been trying to put the brakes on and it doesn’t look like the brakes are getting much traction,” Summers said. “And when your brakes don’t get much traction, two things happen. You can be moving too fast: that’s the inflation pressure, and you can be setting yourself up for kind of a collision or crash down the road. And both of those things, I think, are real risks in this environment,” he continued.

That prediction didn’t age well, since further interest rate hikes did slow inflation enough that the Fed is now mulling the idea of lowering rates.

When it was noted that the media plays a role in talking down the economy, Kevin Tober complained in a Feb. 26 post:

On ABC’s This Week, co-moderator Martha Raddatz aired more of World News Tonight‘s exclusive interview with President Joe Biden during which anchor David Muir displayed how out of touch he is with the economic reality everyday Americans are facing due to Biden’s rampant inflation and incipient recession. Not to be outdone, a “reporter” from America’s state media, NPR, named Asma Khalid claimed the economy is improved from where it was six months ago. 

During the Biden/Muir interview, Muir asked Biden about the economy and seemed befuddled why Americans weren’t feeling good about their financial standing. Of course, Muir made sure to add every seemingly favorable metric he could come up with: “unemployment now at its lowest level in 50 years, but you’ve also seen the polls. Our latest ABC News poll shows 4 in 10 Americans say they’re worse off than when you were elected. Only 16 percent said they were better off. So why is that? Why aren’t Americans feeling this?” 

Biden incoherently explained that Americans aren’t feeling good because “it goes well beyond the economy.” The octogenarian President blamed the constant negative stories Americans see when they turn on the news: “can you think of anything when you turn on the television that makes you think, God, that makes me feel good? Almost anything. Everything is in the negative.”

Has there ever been a time when the news wasn’t negative? Not to our memory. That’s why there’s the saying “no news is good news.”

Tober pffered no proof that Biden and only Biden is responsible for “rampant inflation,” and his prediction of a “incipient recession” has fallen flat because economists now predict that the economy will come in for a “soft landing” without a recession.

When Stephanie Ruhle made the same argument, Alex Christy lashed out in a June 3 post:

MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle is not if not consistent in her efforts to blame the news media for the lack of confidence in the economy. On Friday’s The 11th Hour, Ruhle claimed that “we instilled this fear and unhappiness in people” right before going on to blame consumers for inflation.

During a panel discussion on the economy, REVOLT Black News anchor and managing editor Mara S. Campo made the normal observation that people do not feel confident in the economy because it does not reflect their everyday experience, “But I don’t know if the messaging is getting through. Because I don’t know that people feel it. You know, eggs still cost $8 a carton. A box of cereal is $10. Your credit card bills are going up every month by hundreds of dollars because the Fed keeps raising interest rates.”

Other than a gratuitous call for gun control, Campo summed up the problem with trying to convince voters the economy is doing great, “The housing market seems frozen because mortgage rates are at high sky high rates. We’re all afraid of getting shot by some lunatic with an AR-15 because no place feels safe. So, there are a lot of things that people are just feeling that don’t feel good. But maybe when it comes to the economy it’s not reflecting the messaging and the reality, but people are not really very enthusiastic.”

Ruhle wasn’t buying it, “But we, being the media, are somewhat responsible for that, right? Gas prices is the perfect example. When gas prices are up, like they were last year, every news organization and every reporter were standing in front of the gas station talking about it.”

Alternatively, consumers don’t need a reporter to tell them gas or egg prices are high because they see it themselves when they fill up their car or go to the store. Additionally, the media constantly tried to spin away inflation by repeating Ruhle’s point that the economy was actually doing rather well.

The MRC continued to bash the economy and anyone who noted it wasn’t really as bad as right-wingers (are paid to) portray it:

• What Good Economy? NBC Highlights College Grads Losing Job Offers Under Biden
• CNN: Why Won’t Voters Give Biden Credit for This Great Economy?
• WATCH: Steve Forbes Slams Biden Advisor’s Economic Policy: ‘Destructive Nonsense’
• CNN Loves Biden’s Economy, America Not So Much
• CNN’s Zakaria Declares Biden a Great President, ‘Brought Economy Back’
• Clueless WashPost Claims GOP Should ‘Rethink Attacks on Biden Economy’
• Behar Proclaims Economy ‘Booming,’ Whines Biden Not Getting ‘Credit’
• CNN Laments Biden Forced to ‘Convince Americans’ Economy Is Good
• Clinton Flunkie Robert Reich to MSNBC: We’re Living in a ‘Goldilocks Economy’
• Former Jill Biden Press Sec in MSNBC Op-Ed: Joe Should ‘Stop Focusing on the Economy’
• ABC, CBS, NBC Evening Nets Ignore Marquette Poll Showing Trump Cleaning Biden’s Clock on Economy
• MEDIA FAIL: New Poll Shows Majority of Swing-State Voters Say Economy ‘Better Off’ Under Trump

The MRC was still pushing the bad-economy argument in an Oct. 23 post by Joseph Vazquez:

Liberal journos like Vox co-founder Matthew Yglesias continue to treat struggling Americans as stupid for not giving President Joe Biden kudos on his so-called “great” economy.

Yglesias published a ludicrous Oct. 22 op-ed for Bloomberg Opinion with a headline that was nothing short of comical: “Biden’s Economy Is Great Everywhere Except in the Polls.” In Yglesias’s condescending, escapist worldview, those darn average Americans just don’t know what’s good for them: “Like a lot of world leaders, the US president must contend with voters who remain unhappy even as economic conditions improve.”

Yglesias even outrageously attempted to make Biden out to be a victim of unfair public perception, despite his administration’s policies largely contributing to the inflation crisis that crippled the U.S. economy: “This is undoubtedly a frustrating situation for the president, his campaign and Democrats overall.” 

Utterly “silly,” Heritage economist EJ Antoni told MRC Business of Yglesias’ argument. “It is reminiscent of when football commentators say an NFL team is better than its record,” Antoni added. “That may be true in the initial weeks of the season, but at some point, your record is your record, and it is indicative of the team’s performance. The American people have judged Bidenomics and found it wanting.”

Vazquez didn’t disclose that Antoni is a highly biased right-wing economist whose job at the right-winbg Heritage Foundation is to talk down Biden’s economy in order to boost Republians’ chances of getting elected, so his arguments should be seen as partisan attacks, not sound economic analysis.