I have written before on how NPR's political coverage has veered to the right. See Pledge Week at NPR: Screw Them and The Cokie Roberts Award for Stupidest Pundit as well as this piece. Obviously, it is significant that NPR's political coverage is not only deeply embedded with Conventional Wisdom or that their preferred pundits spend a good deal of time sniping at the left. But just as critical is their coverage of economic issues which, for the most part, receive little commentary.
For some time now, Paul Krugman and other progressive economists have been writing about the massive redistribution of income from the middle class to the very wealthy. Ever since the so-called "Reagan Revolution" the wealthy have been getting wealthier and the working class has been getting shafted. To their credit, The New York Times has done a reasonably good job of documenting this phenomenon, thanks in large part to the writings of Krugman.
Conversely, National Public Radio, despite it's reputation as a liberal media outlet, has done almost no coverage of this phenomenon. Both of the major news programs, Morning Edition and All Things Considered, rely heavily on mainstream or conservative business economists. The go-to-guy on economic issues, for both news programs, is The Wall Street Journal Economics Editor, David Wessel. Wessel's commentary is not overly conservative but it does reflect the conventional wisdom. And Wessel would never broach topics such as the massive redistribution of income to the wealthy. If you do a search for Wessel alone, on NPR's site you will get over 205 hits. Nary a week goes by when he is not commenting on the latest economic news.
While Krugman occassionally gets quoted, he is rarely turned to for "informed commentary." Nor are any other progressive economists. The result is that almost all economic issues are heavily weighted with a conservative bias. If you listened ONLY to NPR for your economic news you would have little or no clue of the massive redistribution of wealth during the last 30 years. Nor would you be given a cause and effect between government policies and this redistribution of wealth towards the rich. You might be informed that the rich are getting richer but absent any detailed policy analysis, ala Krugman, would just leave you scratching your head.
Almost all the NPR stories from 2008, prior to the economic meltdown, have a panglossian veneer to them. Things are a little rough but it's just a rough patch, from which we will pull through. This is the David Wessel meme. And until the train wreck that is the present economic reality, nothing - and I mean nothing at all - would have given you a clue that we were heading towards The Great Recession. Even today, the coverage has chirpy tone that veils the truly horrid state of Americans' financial reality. Will NPR change the tone of it's coverage as the recession deepens and reality becomes too overwhelming to ignore? Unlikely. The present editorial board is too committed to presenting Conventional Wisdom. Rocking the boat, especially on economic issues, is strictly verboten.