MEDIA TO AMERICANS: YOU NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD

By Norman Solomon


     The truth about America today depends on where you sit. And
you probably don't sit in TV studios.

     You may feel like you're working harder for less. Maybe you
worry about medical coverage or job security or retirement. Maybe
you're troubled by continuing signs of deterioration in many cities
and towns.

     If so, you're ignorant. For some time now, prominent news
professionals have done their best to explain that you never had it
so good.

     The wise ones are trying to set you straight. This country is
doing great. What you see every day may tell you different -- but
who are you going to believe, your two eyes or the most esteemed
journalists in America?

     If you sat in network TV studios on a regular basis, you'd be
in a better position to appreciate the dazzling terrain of Punditry
Zone '98. The gamut runs from complacency to optimism.

     Nothing in the news media epitomizes this zone more than
"Washington Week in Review." Airing on PBS television stations
each Friday night, with several journalists talking around a table
for half an hour, the program has a national audience of 3.2 million
people.

     "Washington Week in Review" began this year by letting
viewers know just how contented they are.

     "It's a different country, politically, than it was at the start
of this decade," said David Broder of The Washington Post. "The
level of anger is down. Frustration is less. When you go out and
talk with people, they're just more ready to look at the hopeful
side of things."

     The main reason, Broder added, is the economy: "It has not
`raised all boats' ... but it has certainly raised spirits for a lot of
our fellow Americans." Minutes later, when Los Angeles Times
reporter Ron Brownstein picked up the theme, he emphasized that
"an awful lot of positive trends are coalescing suddenly in the
cities."

     Sitting at the same table seven days earlier, another
"Washington Week in Review" regular, Alan Murray of The Wall
Street Journal, was in similar high spirits as he hailed trickle-
down affluence: "Inequality, which had gotten worse in the '70s and
'80s, did start to get better in the last couple of years in spite of
the stories you see about enormous CEO salaries and so forth.
People at the bottom are moving up."

     These days, many journalists sound like Broder, Brownstein
and Murray. The echo effect is so loud that contrary information
can barely be heard. Yet it's available.

     At the Economic Policy Institute, a few miles from the
"Washington Week in Review" studio, economist Jared Bernstein is
well outside Punditry Zone '98. "Low-wage workers have been
taking it on the chin for two decades now," he told me. "Over the
last year -- thanks to tight labor markets, the increase in the
minimum wage and low rates of inflation -- they've gained back a
bit of the ground they've lost. That doesn't mean the battle's
over."

     If the savants on "Washington Week" picked up the Jan. 12
issue of The Nation magazine, they'd find plenty of facts raining
on their upbeat parade. For instance:

     * "Poverty is increasing," The Nation reports. "The poverty
rate last year, 13.7 percent, was higher than in 1989, despite seven
years of nearly uninterrupted growth. Approximately 50 million
Americans -- 19 percent of the population -- live below the
national poverty line."

     * "The working poor are losing ground. In constant dollars,
average weekly earnings for workers went from a high of $315 in
1973 down to $256 in 1996, a decline of 19 percent."

     * "Income inequality is increasing. Last year, the poorest fifth
of families saw their income decline by $210, while the richest 5
percent gained an average of $6,440 (not counting their capital
gains)."

     Silence about such facts surely doesn't bother top execs at
Ford Motor Co., which has underwritten "Washington Week in
Review" ever since 1979. Currently, Ford gives the program $1
million a year -- nearly two-thirds of its entire budget.

     A few days ago, Ford's chief executive announced that the
company will soon post unprecedented figures for last year. "It is
pretty clear now," he said, "that we will have a record year in
terms of profits for 1997." Like many other huge firms, Ford never
had it so good.

_______________________________________________

Norman Solomon is a syndicated columnist. His most recent books
are "Wizards of Media Oz" (co-authored with Jeff Cohen) and "The
Trouble With Dilbert: How Corporate Culture Gets the Last Laugh."






  ***************************************************
  From new transmitters came the old stupidities.
  Wisdom was passed on from mouth to mouth.
            -Bertolt Brecht
  ***************************************************

Dennis Raphael, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Acting Director,
Masters of Health Science Program in Health Promotion
Department of Public Health Sciences
Graduate Department of Community Health
University of Toronto
McMurrich Building, Room 101
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5S 1A8