OPINION:
Over the past month, the mainstream media have focused almost exclusively on the Ukraine situation. Yet, over the same period, the same legacy media outlets that have been hyperventilating about a war in Eastern Europe have basically ignored the number one concern of Americans: Inflation.
For the past three months, Gallup pollsters have asked Americans: “What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?” In January, 8% said, “high cost of living/inflation.” In February, 10% cited inflation. By March, this had increased to a whopping 17%.
What’s more, when one adds the respondents who identified “high cost of living/inflation” with the 4% who said “fuel/oil prices” are the most important problem, you have more than 20% of the country saying soaring prices are the number issue in their lives.
On the other hand, according to the same poll, only 9% of respondents said the “Ukraine/Russia situation” represents the most important problem facing this country today.
So, why is the mainstream media purposefully ignoring Americans’ number one concern at home? Well, one can only speculate, but I have a sneaking suspicion the legacy media are reluctant to highlight the simple fact that the left’s economic agenda over the past year and a half has been an utter failure.
From reckless spending to the war on domestic energy production, the left’s policies have wrought the worst inflation rate in more than four decades.
However, because the mainstream media are wedded to the left’s ideology, they simply cannot bring themselves to point out the obvious fact that the left’s stewardship of the U.S. economy has been a dismal display of incompetence.
This is made even more striking when one considers that those most negatively affected by the left’s inflationary policies are the very people leftist politicians claim to care most about.
For decades, the Democratic Party has staked its claim as the party solely concerned with the plight of the poor. At the same time, Democratic politicians and their allies in the mainstream media have relentlessly spun the narrative that anyone opposed to the Democratic Party’s agenda must be a shill for big corporations and well-to-do Americans.
Yet, based on the results of free-market policies championed during the previous administration, it is clear as day that free-market policies, such as lower taxes, fewer regulations, energy independence, etc. actually benefited lower- and middle-class Americans more than they helped the so-called wealthy.
For example, we have been told ad nauseum by Democratic politicians and their legacy media associates that the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act—a free-market policy to the core—was a boon to the rich and a slap in the face to hardworking Americans.
But, this is simply not the case. In truth, “According to data from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service comparing outcomes from 2017 to 2018—the first year the tax reform law went into effect—the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act reduced average effective income tax rates for filers in every one of the IRS’s income brackets, with the largest benefits going to lower- and middle-income households.”
Moreover, “IRS data also revealed that higher-income earners paid an even larger share of the total tax burden in 2018 than they did in 2017, indicating that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act may have made the tax code slightly more progressive. This finding contradicts the countless statements made by Democrats over the past four years criticizing TCJA as legislation that favored wealthier filers.”
Of course, this is but one of many examples wherein free-market policies have abetted lower- and middle-class Americans. Yet, as is always the case, the media refused to tell this story.
In today’s media landscape, it is easier than ever to frame the narrative, given the rampant censorship that is now all too common. Stories that do not fit the legacy media’s preferred narrative simply are not relayed to the public.
Even worse, events that run counter to the mainstream media’s progressive worldview, such as the Hunter Biden laptop story, are swept under the rug and deemed “misinformation.” The media’s tactic of bias by omission becomes more prevalent by the day.
The big question is: How much longer can this ruse last?
- Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is senior editor at The Heartland Institute.
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