Perception Reporting and the Death of Informed Consent
I’m getting sick and tired of the prevalence in the media of polls which report what people believe, which seem now to be the norm in terms of informative stories in the press. It seems that spin has all but erased the possibility of objective journalism. Instead of reporting what Social Security is, how it works, and what it is doing, for example, we get this story from the Washington Post:
A strong majority of respondents, 63 percent, do not think Social Security will have enough money to pay the benefits they are entitled to, and 74 percent think the system faces either major problems or is in crisis — as Bush has asserted. The president also has at least general support from 53 percent of the public for the concept of letting people control some of their contributions to invest in the market.
The article then goes on to report on how this perception will play into the politics of the issue. This is just like the polls on whether you believed Scott Peterson was guilty or not. Not being on the jury, how could you possibly make an informed decision? The results of these polls are worse than useless.
There are far too many stories out there of the type I quote from above; you see them all the time. It seems that almost all news reporting nowadays is based on this kind of journalism, and not on edifying the public. Since when did public perception of the truth trump the actual truth in journalism? The role of the press, if I am not mistaken, is to inform and educate the public in matters of importance. People are obviously making up their minds about social security and solidifying their stands without having the slightest clue about what anything is about on the issue. We get far better information in ballot pamphlets on referendums, when an issue is carefully spelled out and various views given. But we don’t have that in the press today, we have something more akin to a popularity contest. News organizations are not giving us information, they’ve turned into 24-hour spin machines.
What we need is more primers like this one from CNN/Money, which lays out the Social Security system, what the suggestions are, and what the possible fallout could be from any particular plan. It is simple and informative. It should, ideally, be followed by links to various other explanations, each one presenting a further level of detail, with access to information sources and links to opinion pieces. In other words, the facts should be laid out by the press so the people can read, learn, understand–and then decide. But such primers are rare, especially in contrast to the stories about spin. Right now we’re simply assaulted with plans by politicians neck-deep in spin and then quizzed by the media about how they sound, the results of which are them used to “inform” us (regurgitation, not nutrition), and gauge how politically viable the plans are.
It is, in short, a joke.
The public needs information. Data. Facts. Explanations. Not spin, not polls, not uninformed reactions, not spin on uninformed reaction based on polls based on spin.
But then, I am probably asking for too much, aren’t I?
Ask yourself, have you made a decision, even a tentative one, on what course to take on social security? If so, what is that decision based upon? Are you truly informed? Answer some very fundamental questions to find out:
1. The taxes paid by workers will exceed the benefits paid to retirees until what year?
a. 2018
b. 2042
c. 2052
d. 2100
To see the answer to any one question, select the text in the black box to reveal the answer:
| a. 2018 |
2. Will Social Security be “out of money” by that year?
a. yes
b. no
| b. No. It can draw from Treasury notes for some time after that. |
3. When will Social Security really be out of money?
a. 2028
b. 2042
c. 2052
d. 2100
| “b” or “c”, depending on who you go by. But even then, it will still have enough funds to pay for 75% or 80% of benefits. |
4. True or false: Bush’s plan will put more money into the system, staving off a financial crisis in Social Security.
| False. It will remove as much as 1/3 of the fees paid into the system, which will quicken the day when it runs out, leading to an earlier crisis. |
5. Bush will pay for this by:
a. Borrowing trillions of dollars, adding massively to the deficit
b. Raising taxes in general
c. Raising payroll taxes, raising the retirement age, and/or reducing benefits
d. The system will magically pay for itself
| If you answered “d”, then you are most decidedly a Republican. “a” is what Bush is saying now, but as with so many of Bush’s plans, the major costs come long after he’s out of office. A combination of “a”, “b”, and “c” is more likely, though that’s just my opinion. |
It is very likely that you did not know the correct answers to many of the questions above. And you may very well be more informed than the people answering those polls. A simple understanding of the system leads you to the simple conclusion that you don’t solve a financial crisis in social security by depriving it of up to 1/3 of its funds–but this is not reflected in what the media is reporting because they tend to forget to inject the facts into the equation at some point. We blame Bush and Cheney for making 70% of Americans think that Saddam Hussein was directly involved in 9/11, but the fact is that the media creates these impressions by simply reporting spin and then reporting on public perception of the spin. If more journalists reported on facts instead of spin, more news readers would make decisions informed by facts, not by what politician’s delivery they like best, which party they belong to, or what opinion is prevailing so I can follow the winning side.
People, let’s keep a lookout for primers. If you send me the address of a primer on any major topic of the day–not an opinion piece left or right, nor a fake primer by a leaning source, but a real, informative, balanced primer, I’ll post it here. If I get enough, I’ll make a special part of the page or a new page to hold them. Let’s start with Social Security. I found the one at CNN/Money; any other ones out there?