Saturday on the Peoplenomics side of the house we will cover a unique topic: News Trajectories.
But, both for subscribers and the ‘great unwashed’ we can use this morning’s release of the Consumer Price Index data as a dandy example. You see, when a news item like the CPI crosses, it doesn’t just operate in the moment. It has a carryforward value, as well. In fact, right up until a month from now, when the next data set is released, we will all be coming back to today’s press release as the “latest and best” read of price change.
One other oddity about the CPI data, which is important to understand along with the data, is that the Federal Reserve, like us, runs computer models. They do a passable job of managing the nation’s money based on the CPI less food and energy. This is because of their view that this is “core inflation.” So realizing these two key facts, here’s this morning’s data:
(Continues below)
From the Labor Department:
“The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.2 percent in
April on a seasonally adjusted basis after falling 0.1 percent in March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index rose 2.5 percent before seasonal adjustment.
The indexes for gasoline and shelter were the largest factors in the seasonally adjusted increase in the all items index, although the food index increased as well. The gasoline index increased 3.0 percent, more than offsetting declines in other energy component indexes and led to a 1.4-percent rise in the energy index. The
food index rose 0.3 percent, with the food at home index rising 0.3 percent and the index for food away from home increasing 0.2 percent.
The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.1 percent in April. The shelter index rose 0.3 percent, with other indexes mixed. The indexes for household furnishings and operations, Personal care, tobacco, medical care, and apparel all increased in April, while those for used cars and trucks, new vehicles, recreation, and airline fares all declined.
The all items index rose 2.5 percent for the 12 months ending April; this figure has been mostly trending upward since it was 1.6 percent for the period ending June 2017. The index for all items less food and energy rose 2.1 percent for the 12 months ending April. The food index increased 1.4 percent, and the energy index
rose 7.9 percent.
A table from the press release if your eyes are squinty-good:
Involuntary sex at the gas pump, huh?
Now to a discussion of the “trajectory” of this little news item. It is a fixed trajectory. In other words, it was (like a cannon) fired this morning. It will land (becoming useless as an ‘ideal projectile’ a month from now when another round of data will be fired.
What determines the apogee of the data is its variance from prediction.
In other words, we look at prevailing interest rates – like the 10-year Treasury note that closed Wednesday with an implied interest rate of 3.004 percent. and compare it with the expected data.
We know that last month, the CPI was running 2.4 percent for the 12-month, unadjusted, all-items index. Since the bond was (rounding) 3%, we can infer that a normal relationship is a 4-10th’s percent bond over CPI spread. Just as an idea, you understand.
Now, the neat thing about economics is that we practice extensible thinking all the time. In other words, a question like “What impact is a small change in CPI likely to have?” is easily resolved by going to extremes.
Sad, but true: Some of us “radical economists” talk that extremist talk because it reveals the trend impacts.
Thus, we can bracket expectations as follows:
If the CPI this morning was exactly the same as the previous month, we would expect a similar apogee for the data. Stability should reign.
If, at the extreme low, there had been only a 0.6 percent rise in the all items, that could collapse the bond market yields to the 1.2 % range. and prices of the bonds could double. Gold, oil, housing, and other hard assets, as inflation hedges, would collapse in a heap. There would be talk of negative rates and of the imminent collapse of our current latter day replay of the Roaring Twenties ruining the financial system. At some point, such an event would collapse one of the systemically important financial players, which would lead to another bankster hold-up of the global monetary system. Then, despite likely US and/or G20 bailing, we’d see the gates of Hell open just a few months out. Robert Prechter’s Elliott Wave International forecast of this being The Big One would come to pass. As would our own views that have spawned something of a “hunker in the bunker” mentality.
On the OTHER hand, a different extreme view would be to pencil out what would happen in the annualized inflation rate had come in at 10% or some huge ugly like that?
For one thing, gold, silver, oil, real estate – all the traditional hard assets would go to the moon overnight. Not because of a fundamental change in demand (world still has only so many people renting, right?). Instead it would be an effect of extremely high replacement costs.
In such a world, where the costs go up like mad, people will turn on consumption as a mind-boggling rate because they will consume now to hedge against higher futures prices.
Meanwhile, Prechter would still be semi-right: It would be Depression game-on. Except that it would be the Ure spin on the outcome. This is where a Managed Hyperinflation Protocol (MHP) would be the outcome.
The concept of an MHP is the scaled-up, mega-super-sized version of how you pay your home off. You buy it at one price (like I bought one in 1973) and then could have paid it off many years later with what were by then much cheaper dollars.
In THEORY, we could do the same thing with the US National Debt – which will hit $22-trillion shortly. As the MHP is rolled out, prices will seem to go up – which they wouldn’t in a classical US-style Depression, but which they DID EXACTLY in the German Weimar inflation. Oh, and in the Zimbabwean inflation under Robert Mugabe.
At the end, you end up paying bondholders of the US off with highly depreciated dollars. But, because of how FOREX and other markets work, the US dollar is presently VERY strong.
The point where the MHP will become self-evident (and the dollar will collapse) is after we finish the present (silly) game of creating more money thank increasing GDP justifies, trying to create enough monetary inflation to “print through” the continuing and pernicious deflation which is still out there if you know where to look.
If you haven’t been paying attention, the ONE data number that NO ONE called your attention to was this part of the last Labor Department Employment Situation Report. Look at what I have highlighted:
Tell me you’re not stupid, please!
We added 175,000 people to the population last month but only 3,000 jobs.
Tell me how that kind of economy works?
Sure…noisy data and all that happy-talk. But to borrow a phrase from my eldest daughter, “You oughta be seeing more red flags than a Chinese hillside!.”
Thus, our advice to all: At some point, you have to buy your future.
Big McMansion is the ‘burbs is great as long as all the utilities are on and “normal” reigns supreme. Turn other any of communications, natural gas, gasoline, electricity, food supplies…well, you know that list, yeah?
Smaller towns can devolve to the “ground state” much more gracefully. Most cities under 20,000 have little gang problems, for example. Every city over 1-million does.
Why anyone, in their right mind, would add avoidable risk to their existence like that is just flat-ass startling.
A few of us “get it.” Oilman2, his son, my son (who is looking to downsize his city) and lots of others, especially the brighter of Millennials, such as our Millennial Caller dude. Smaller is better, smaller is robust, smaller is survivable.
But don’t take my word for it.
One of these days, one of the “News Trajectories” will prove me right. When it does, Ure will likely say “told you so.” And, unlike the cities of impact, we’ll be able to. Solar power, independent water sources, a bit of food stores, a lots of seeds, understanding of gardening…fertilizer…source to buy local chickens….well, you got the picture.
Or not. Hell, odds are your jaw has dropped and you’re ready to borrow my ViseGrips to pinch yourself.
“How could I have been so stupid,” you’ll be saying.
The answer is simple: You followed the social herd, not your own clear-headed thinking.
Oh well…
If the market tanks, it might be blamed on this: “Israel hits Iran’s Syria bases with 70 missiles killing ‘at least 23 fighters’ and vowing ‘if it rains in Israel it pours in Iran’”
Speak of “Told You So’s”
About 6-years back, I wrote a book on how the internet would play our in all this. It was Broken Web The Coming Collapse of the Internet/
Since publication, I have lost track of the security breaches and data hacks.
But another prediction building now is the move which will come after the market collapse to licen se content on the internet.
Three stories exactly on point as this news projectile heads towards apogee:
Matt Drudge warns Trump is opening a pandora’s box of censorship with ‘crusade on fake news’
“The Senate’s Feel-Good Shield Law.”
And, as we have been warning, this is all because social media has turned into a #meetoo digital mob. And that, in an economic displacement-causing collapse will spark digital lynch mobs and regulation will be required to put down digital insurrection.
(Cheery today, huh?)
The REAL Story on Cohen
Is arising this morning as forecast: How did Stormy tartlet’s attorney get the SSR’s from Cohen’s bank? These are suspicious activity reports – which were confidential in nature.
Someone leaked this – and we expect the Obama/deep state shadow government’s hand will be found. Plausibly deniable, of course.
Trust you caught the other day how the Obama radical’s opposition government are taking credit for Trump accomplishments? “Credit Obama for Low Unemployment Rate, Former Obama Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett Says.”
Trump took office nearly a year and a half ago. Yet there’s the radical shadow government claim – and of course it will be swallowed by the calendar-impaired social media manipulators.
Just like Obamanistas meddled in apparent violation of the Logan Act trying to save the crooked Iran deal.
Both parties are crooked, but Obama’s the first of either party to stick around Washington to run the democrat/socialist spin on the French Vichy government.
We note Obama’s predecessor simply went back to his ranch in Texas, lived in his vastly more energy efficient home that Al Gore, for example, and let the following government run the country. Not so, with the radical left.
Sadly, we can’t run an energy impact on “hot air.”
Useful News
Depression Has Spiked By 33% In the Last Five Years, a New Report Says. Bet me it has been accompanied by the media getting more hysterical and thus media becomes a public health risk…
President Trump Welcomes U.S. Detainees Freed from North Korea Home/
RBS reaches $4.9 billion deal to settle U.S. mortgage bond investigation
Useless Crap
Prosecutors reduce felony charges for NFL heiress.
And is this worthy of the BBC’s attention? ‘I’m sad that I didn’t have sex until I was 37’. GMFB!
Off to see if spatter shield works on the plasma cutter and other adventures. Keep it real…and more on the ‘morrow.
Why would Drudge think President Trump wouldn’t have a crusade on fake news? He stood up against NK & Iran, & now it is fake news turn, since for 1 1/2 years they have tried to impeach President Trump with fake news, along with Mueller & the fake Russia investigation. It is time for the Presidency to go on the offensive. But fake news doesn’t want to hear anyone’s view but it’s own. The mid term elections in November will tell a big story on where the citizens sit on this stripping of our freedom assault.
Decredentialing “journalists” who walk away from a news conference and report the opposite or ignore the content in favor of “Melanie doesn’t live in the White House” deserve to have their butts replaced by someone with a sense of why they are there. But maybe those “journalists” no longer exist in Washington. They certainly have no right to be called on for questions.
Correct JDN – They praised Michelle Obama when she changed the school lunch menu to items the kids throw in the garbage. Kids would rather go hungry than eat her disgusting menu. The kids will be hungry…is this how you fight child obesity.
PS: Snack sales went up in school cafeterias. Kids are resilient.
Today there’s little reason to have a journalist report on a news conference, other than to state when, where, why, what and the video URL. Listen to the raw feed and draw your own conclusions.
And, please help me out, why would Trump need to stand-up to NK and Iran. What invasions have they conducted in recent years? In my view, the real problem is that few countries have not stood up to US imperialism. Fortunately, countries with some military power like China and Russia are slowly leveling the playing field. Russia/China are moving slowly as they well know they do not need a direct confrontation with America. US debt and political incompetence will gradually sink the American ship of state without a shot.
I see Communism is still alive in the USA. Where is Joe McCarthy when you need him.
#I’maCommieToo ?
Bingo!!!
IMO you are underselling the war thing. This is the next phase unfolding before our eyes. Wouldn’t you agree that Israel and Iran openly warring is a transitional moment?
My feeling is Iran will back down. They have enough problems with sanctions & President Trump. They need to focus on their citizens not rebelling against a failing economy. Rhetoric is their main weapon, not war. Plus, the stock market is up again this morning signaling peace.
In this particular situation, ‘religion’ is an excuse for power politics. Saudi Arabia is the spoiler in this ‘match’. Remember ‘The friend of my friend is my enemy’ – and ‘Divide and conquer’ . . . we are in for a hot (not only temperature-wize) summer.
Trump really should place tariffs on foreign oil. It’s worked great so far for steel and aluminum.
And bargain buyers love the lower cost soybeans.
Protect frackers, tariffs on foreign oil!
‘Fake News’ is the ‘real deal’ in far too many US CITIZENS..and unfortunately they VOTE… as they are leaning to ‘socialism’ because of the ‘choices of candidates’ presented to them….who by the way have been schooled to believe in ‘socialism’…wtf
Hmm..take another look..it’s all planned. The pied piper is playing his tune and everyone is dancing to their wishes. JMHO
On big cities vs. small cities. Many have tried to convince me of the virtues of rural living…so…when I lived in the Midwest, over 20 years ago… I moved out in the sticks/ex-urban and tried the small city thing. It was very Depressing (plus, the commute sucked) and way too remote for me and I couldn’t wait to get back into the daily energy of a big city life. When the opportunity to move the the San Francisco Bay Area beckoned…I jumped on it and embraced it. I couldn’t imagine not being in an urban environment. If you look at my career throughout the years, I have been in jobs that require excessive physical social interaction. I have concluded that there are people out there like me that have a physical or remote social gene. The physical gene types need the energy of an urban core to thrive. But, some people like yourself do not have to have that physical interaction…you George, can experience the social interaction remotely thru Urban Survival, Peoplenomics and other various media you engage in while in the comforts of your own home. I can’t…I need the comfort of a group dynamics, the physical sounds and buzz of progress to make me happy. The benefits far outweigh the risks in my world. In fact, the risks add an adrenaline factor to the equation. Plus…my urban lifestyle pays very well…and money has a way to add to that smile on my face. Make sense?
Sure does. And were I not 69 and happily married, I would get downright depressed out here. Not even a good restaurant in town…so I do hear you brother! Go down to Allioti’s and have some fish and chips for me or at the Grotto…
“Gimme a crab cocktail, then a crab and shrimp Louie, thousand, and the fisherman’s platter hold the calamari extra fish instead…”
After we’re done, we can go down for our favorite Italian joint on Earth in S SF: Bertolcci’s pizza for dessert (Sausage, pepperoni, meatball, anchovies, pesto, mushrooms, olives, onions) extra mutz… Bertolucci’s is just up from Oyster Point YC where we lived on the boat for 9 months…
So yeah, Mark, I feel you, bro. We gotta get off the ranch sometimes….
I get off the ranch to once a month to do my shopping and stuff but I’m getting to the point where I just rather stay home and have Amazon deliver I mean I love it out here yeah I know I used to live in the bigger cities on the East Coast and I know that but this is so much more peaceful without having to worry about people who are obsessed scene and people who just want to hurt people and people who will take you out for some pocket change.
So there is a point in everyone’s life where they where they change a little bit or desire different circumstances course we have people that completely retire and died in New York City’s Apartments.
Look around you where you’re at is that what you enjoy, some people have been preconditioned.
Others have also been preconditioned slowly over the years to be pedophiles in the pit of pizza pizzagate.
I would rather be around someone he’s growing food growing animals growing kids and grandkids rather than to be in the city where a lot of people care about conquering other people and they also care about having the ability to do what they want in the city without no repercussions from the authorities. As in a bad way.
I like being out in the country where I have the ability to not be constricted by a police officer that just drives by because there are none.
Compared to the city everybody’s game if a superior person in the City Community higher scale me and her being there says Hey I want you to do this and arrest this person well you are arrested you’re guilty without proven innocent because you have done something that the elite doesn’t want.
Yes I like living out in the country I can pull my lizard out and PS every place I want to the only thing I have to worry about is that I in the sky are they going to get their eyes full.
The War Powers the more power they want and the more destruction they do I hope that Trump does the cheese is goals that he was recruited for in this Sunday paper to correct and get rid of the power structure that is enabling a worldwide government that destroys individual rights even out in the country including the sasquash including the people who live underground in the honey cones of the inner earth .
May all beings be lovingly fulfilled, so be it.
sweet dreams if you can’t sleep and you have demons in your life repeat those words over and over and you’ll be able to sleep comfortably because everything is a mind job if your mind’s in the right place you can achieve anything if your minds in the wrong place while you know you’ll probably wind up in some of the worst places that she did not anticipate
Meaningless without fish and chips. And Bertolucci’s. Mark is rich in a different way…but damn…I will be driving 4,000 miles this summer for fish and chips and crab Louie. Love the ranch, the tools, the…all the Amazon sheet in the world. But it still comes down to follow your gut. With mine smaller now, I have lots of room for an order of double fish!
Well now you’re wealthy enough you can have him fly it to you and if you know the right people you can have them portal it to you instantly appear at your residence.
There are people that live out someone in the country and they get picked up whenever by flying triangular disc that’s piloted by one and has room by two for two people and they pick them up and it’s silent because it’s Antigravity and they take those empath people to places in the earth and then the outer Earth and into the Moon Mars and other places and they do it all within a few minutes.
So yes we have the ability to go anywhere within the Earth on the surface of the Earth and Beyond the Earth and bring you back any of those specialty items that you just can’t get enough of.
You are a heathen Bryce. Cold fish and chips suck. The crab Louie? Maybe…
Don’t forget Tony’s Napolitano Pizza in North Beach. Best ever! My treat to all of these places if you ever make it here.
I’ll diet beforehand and you’ll be broke!
I woke up didn’t even grab the coffee first .
Went out on the porch and grab some of the outer leaves on the cabbage not the head but the ad early staff got so much good stuff and there.
and it way too dude chewed intrude and then swallowed that was some good stuff and then to really wake up without the coffee w****** in grab the little piece of that garlic and chewed just enough to make the mouth spicy and chewed and chewed and chewed and him another little pace and then another little piece off the same little clove there so and then what happened was everything that wasn’t down was up you know I’m in your hole mood changes mean it was better than coffee you get a tingling feeling all over your body because the stuff is like viagra because Fargo was originally created to get your heart going the blood flowing and garlic does that is just like honey what has ever 200 and greens garlic has over 200 and they both stimulate you yes but anyway I finally did grab some coffee.
Bryce…this is only marginally coherent if I read what you wrote.
Coffee followed by shave followed by toothbrush. I think that’s why I am still married, lol
“Others have also been preconditioned slowly over the years to be pedophiles in the pit of pizza pizzagate.
I would rather be around someone he’s growing food growing animals growing kids and grandkids rather than to be in the city where a lot of people care about conquering other people ”
AMEN to that. Seems the cities have turned into pits of racial discord,violence and every form of depravity known and some I’ve never even heard of.
It bothers me that Trump wants to control the media because of what is said about him. Here’s a bit of advice. Quit acting like a middle school bully then.
The fact is…He has some successes…he has some items on the table that are game changers…If he would stop the name calling…stop the idiotic confrontations and crazy Tweeting, he may go down as one of our best Presidents…As it stands right now, if he keeps up his childish ways, he will go down as a good president with an Asterisk*…just like Roger Maris, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. Grow up Donny! You are your own worst enemy.
After Mueller, lol (and Hil, Obama, Schumer, Clapper, Fusion GPS, Rosenstein, NY Times…should I continue?)
No…I get it, But, imagine what a better place we all would be in if Trump would not be the boastful winner everyone loves to hate. Couple of examples…Richard Sherman, Terrell Owens, Randy Moss were poor sports that had their reputation tarnished by their behavior.
Barry Bonds would have been in the Hall of Fame by now despite the accusations of performance enhancing drugs if he had just been nice to the media instead of a total jerk. He had Hall fo Fame stats before he was suspected of using drugs…
If Trump would just stop being a boastful, trash talking, name calling jerk and just shut up do what he has been doing, we wouldn’t have so much division, a Mueller investigation, a Stormy controversy, a Michael Cohen investigation etc. Trumps own behavior makes him a character you love to hate…And, It is a shame. He is making progress…I must give him that credit. NOBODY likes a POOR SPORT. NOBODY!
What Trump could do media-wise is bring back the fairness doctrine for all broadcast AND satellite-delivered media (which is all of them because an uplink is under the purvey of the FCC). That way he could get a handle on all the cable networks.
What’cha think, George?
Amen. And require ALL stations to do 5 minute per hour of news content – not 5 min less 90 sec of commercials, 30 seconds of weather, sports scores and Variety/HWood Reporter crap.
I did a study once in my news days (1980s) and even then real news was less than 90 sec per hour. The rest? BS and filler
Yeah, that worked really well the last time…*
*See my diatribe at the top of the comments.
Probably so, Stephen. The hate continues from the Right and the Left. Cheery indeed!
I was standing in line at Macy’s. Some lady stuck up a conversation explaining she had applied for a job at an newly opening Menards® in Belleville MI USA.
She told me the applicant line was 500 deep when she arrived first thing, AM. The lady seemed cheery and told me the interviewer said she did great and has a good chance.
Is she in rehab yet?
I was in a large chain Fabric and craft’s store about 6 months ago. The checkout line was huge and there was only two cashiers. One of them was the mgr. He told me he was short over a dozen positions and had something like six applicants in the 4 weeks prior…..he left messages for them to schedule and interview and none had called back yet. I live in a large metro area. I wonder why Menards would have such a different experience…I hear from lots of employers theyre having a hard time finding help. Passing drug test is a big problem too.
Chickens are great homesteading critters, and if you buy them from a real feed store, you can get 90% hens as inexpensive chicks. BUT, they take months to grow into layers, and are not safe outside, unsupervised until they are older. Even then, there is predation in the woods. Our latest batch had one who ended up being a rooster (named Lola as an homage to the Kinks’ song). He is somewhat noisy, but is useful in guarding the hens.
Another strategy is to buy an incubator. If SHTF, and you can get fertilized eggs, plus some electricity, then your food supply is eventually enhanced.
In regular, non-SHTF times, aside from eggs that taste better than any from a store, you get fertilizer and insect control that is really nice in a buggy place. The eggs keep for weeks without refrigeration, if you don’t wash them. They eat ticks, chiggers, locusts (a chicken’s equivalent of a steak dinner) many food scraps, greens, weeds, grass, etc. It is fun to watch them go nuts over watermelon rinds. Unlike hydroponics, no power source, water tanks, etc. required. If you want quiet, just eat the rooster(s). I haven’t seen it, but they supposedly kill snakes, too.
We may do that next spring…we do love the fresh eggs when we had ’em.
It’s fake if it’s not flattering (about Trump)
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/5/9/17335306/trump-tweet-twitter-latest-fake-news-credentials
the truth will come out anyway….
In this particular situation, ‘religion’ is an excuse for power politics. Saudi Arabia is the spoiler in this ‘match’. Remember ‘The friend of my friend is my enemy’ – and ‘Divide and conquer’ . . . we are in for a hot (not only temperature-wize) summer.
In this particular situation, ‘religion’ is an excuse for power politics. Saudi Arabia is the spoiler in this ‘match’. Remember ‘The friend of my friend is my enemy’ – and ‘Divide and conquer’ . . . we are in for a hot (not only temperature-wize) summer.
I thought it was the enemy of my enemy is my friend?
Well . . . says something about my mindset, I suppose . . . logically identical?
I wonder and off topic..
But has anyone checked to make sure BRYCE is ok.
It’s not like him to not add his two cents worth of opinion.
I limit him to 3 posts per day – g
This should be frightening to all of us. The FBI planted a mole in Trumps campaign. I can’t say it enough, weve become a nation of scurillous and mean spirited gossips and snitches complete with recording tools we willingly carry that collects data on all of us, our cell phones, IPad’s and pc’s.
The FBI uses at the street level the most sketchy of informants..people whove plea bargained often times and agreed to be snitches. These snitches will lie cheat and steal and say whatever they believe their handlers want to hear. The police have what are called back door files. Theyre files of data on everyday citizens that have been compiled with the use of snitches and informants usually of scandalous background themselves.
Have you noticed how the msm has info immediately on all newsmakers? I think the NSA is probably selling everything they collect to whoever in the deep state wants it.
I know this blog mainly thinks about the next economic downturn, but the way information is being weaponized should be frightening to all of us, as that info in an environment of distrust could make us all targets. Especially if the economy does eventually tank and some of us who’ve done our best to prepare for it appear to be surviving better than those who are struggling. That’s the future I see.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-10/wsj-fbi-hid-mole-trump-campaign
do a wifi check.. now that is intrusion..
Large majority of Republicans believe the FBI is out to get Trump….(Trump is the one with the foot in his mouth..)
https://www.vox.com/2018/5/10/17340200/poll-republicans-trump-fbi-mueller-witch-hunt
I think those that control the government and all the departments see trump as a threat.
Thankfully he has just about as much power as they do. this leaves out buying him off or threatening his presidency by having him leave office in one way or another. the only other thing they can do is discredit his administration. so far it has been close to two years now and MSM and everyone has tried in every way to discredit him in more ways than I can imagine.. . If it had been anyone else that had won the election their power would have been secured again long ago.JMHO here.. I may be wrong..
There is nothing “fair” about the “fairness doctrine” because either the MSM will determine what’s “fair,” or the government will so-determine, using some form of a Bureau of Propaganda.
Fairness Doctrine v1.0 branded everyone it could, even Paul Harvey and Earl Nightingale, as “conservative PUNDITS” (I grew up listening to “The Rest of the Story” and “Changing Times,” and cannot recall a single episode of either which was political in any way.) The FCC did not brand shows like “Arthur Godfrey” as political, even though Godfrey was liberal and wove politics into his monologues and conversations, yet they did, “The Rest of the Story,” simply because Harvey was conservative.
In 1991 (BTW the Fairness Doctrine went away in 1987) I typically listened to 3 hours of Rush Limbaugh, followed by 3 hours of Jack Anderson (who was the featured political columnist for the WaPo, and probably the most-read pundit in the U.S., at that time.) There was no comparison between either the content or the common sense broached by the two — Limbaugh was so much better as to make any such comparison laughable.
‘Thing is, Limbaugh went national in 1988, with what was then the first nationally-syndicated conservative radio talk show. 1988. Damn’ near all broadcast politikspeak to that point had been liberal, and it wasn’t much listened to, because it wasn’t interesting, and ran counter to the beliefs of the majority of Americans.
FOXNews waxes between 46% and 52% liberal — that is, it is nearly politically-neutral in the stuff it covers (to be fair, FNC doesn’t “cover” some of the crap the Lib networks cover) but Liberals and young’uns, and the low-information portion of the population, consider it “right wing” because it is nowhere near the far-left extreme of the other networks (which the aforementioned accept as “the norm”), and because its pundits are mostly right-center to conservative.
What “made” FNC was not the talkers, but Ailes’ insistence that newscasters be able to divorce themselves from their personal biases while on-air and report the news without editorializing (I know of at least two, in the last 12 years, who were politically, hard leftists. They happened also to be professionals, and able to detach themselves from their politics sufficiently long enough to do their jobs properly.)
When the former NK prisoners were released and being flown back to the U.S., FNC and FOX Business were the only two channels even mentioning the event. Every other news network (and the broadcast networks during their news shows) were wall-to-wall Russia, Russia, Russia, Stormy, Stormy, Stormy. There was not one mention of Pompeo’s incredibly newsworthy mission or its successful completion, either in the blather or in the crawls.
Y’all seem to believe this would all change if “fairness” were forced on the broadcast realm. I ask you to reconsider. You and I won’t determine “fairness.” It would be determined by the mainstream media itself, or through government by the Party in-power.
Give Mr. Trump or his Administration the ability to police the airwaves for content, and in 2 or 6 or 10 years, when the Liberals have Congress or the White House, or both, they’ll have that same ability. Given their inclination and with that kind of editorial power vested in government, they will be inclined to make US-based conservative opinion and all voices of dissent go away.
Would anyone who values their own, or others’ opinion, and the free flow of information, really want this?
If I wanted to be spoon-fed my news and opinion from State media, as if I lived in Venezuela or China or Cuba, or from rubbish printed in Rolling Stone and the Hollywood Insider, I would move, or buy a subscription.
I DON’T. I am a big boy. I find my own information and based upon relevant fact and common sense, form my own opinions. I don’t want my sources to dry up. I also know where the damn’ ON/OFF switch on the teevee is located.