CEO Evening News? CBS Turns to Benefit-Cutting Bosses for 'Fiscal Cliff' Commentary

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/11/27-3


The CBS Evening News has decided the best way to inform viewers about the impending "fiscal cliff" is to let corporate CEOs affiliated with the Fix the Debt campaign recommend cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

On November 19, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein was tapped for his apparent expertise in long-term budget forecasting. His message was simple: Benefit cuts are necessary. "The entitlements, and what people think that they're going to get, because it's not going to--they're not going to get it," he asserted.

Blankfein offered more specifics, explaining that

'Social Security wasn't devised to be a system that supported you for a 30-year retirement after a 25-year career. So there will be certain things that the retirement age has to be changed, maybe some of the benefits have to be affected, maybe some of the inflation adjustments have to be revised.'

It's hard to know what he's talking about when he refers to a "25-year career." Perhaps some Goldman Sachs employees retire in their early 40s, but most workers do not--and they certainly don't get Social Security retirement benefits when they do so. But Blankfein derives a straightforward moral from this dubious talking point: These benefits must be cut "because we can't afford them."

[pangaia]

1. And teabaggers claim the 'media' has a liberal bias. !!!

[PETRUS]

2. On a related note:

"Any time you see Wall Street CEOs and CNBC campaigning for what they call the common good, it’s worth raising an eyebrow or two.

So it is with CNBC’s “Rise Above” crusade, which has blanketed its airwaves and adorned its lapels since the day after the election with pleas for a solution to the so-called “fiscal cliff.”

You’ll note that CNBC has not Risen Above for the common good on issues like stimulating a depressed economy, ameliorating the housing catastrophe, or prosecuting its Wall Street sources/dinner partners for the subprime fiasco. But make no mistake: even if it had, it would have been stepping outside the boundaries of traditional American journalism practice into political advocacy. And that’s precisely what it’s doing here, at further cost to its credibility as a mainstream news organization instead of some HD version of Wall Street CCTV."

Read more: http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/rise_above_cnbcs_move_into_adv.php

[xchrom]

3. i don't even have the energy to raise my eyebrows anymore. nt