Preserving a Vision: Part III (Thomas Sowell)

The New York Times of May 21 featured estimates of how much revenue the federal government is losing as a result of tax cuts, more than $50 billion over a five-year period. Meanwhile, a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal reported the government as receiving "a surge in unanticipated revenue coming from the rich."

There is no contradiction between these two stories. The Times reported estimates, while the Wall Street Journal reported what actually happened. Moreover, there is no real difference in outlook between the writers who wrote these two stories.

To the Wall Street Journal writer, the increased tax revenue from "the rich" was "a windfall for the U.S. Treasury."

There has long been a difference in outlook between the reporters who write up the news for the Wall Street Journal and those who write the same newspaper's editorial page. If the reporter thinks that the increased revenue to the Treasury was "unanticipated," that suggests that she has not been reading the editorial pages of her own newspaper.

Professor Sowell:The "trickle down theory" has been a stock phrase on the left for decades and yet not one of those who denounce it can find anybody who advocated it. The tenacity with which they cling to these catchwords shows how desperately they need them, if only to safeguard their vision of the world and of themselves. conservatism IS compassion:

The left relies on Goebels logic: Facts don't matter if the masses don't think about them, but only about what emotions. Everything turns on the will to believe. If you American and want to believe that we the people are competent to figure things out and vote for what is best in the long run, you are a conservative. If you are an American and you want to believe that the people who say they are smart should make all the decisions, you are a "liberal."
Conservatives' problem is that the "liberal" perspective dominated journalism because the "liberal" perspective is a logical correlary of the "If it bleeds it leads" criterion for deciding what is "important." If you think inside journalism's box you do not notice that what journalism promotes as "objectivity" and "the public interest" is nothing more than what makes journalism profitable.
Journalism promotes the idea that "the rich" are an illegitimate "Establishment." But in fact, journalism is the Establishment. Mass-market journalism is cheap talk sold dear.

I was looking for the attribution of your second comment, then saw your Freepername. It is the best description of "liberal" outlook that I have ever read.

***But in fact, journalism is the Establishment. Mass-market journalism is cheap talk sold dear.***

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