Gibson Distorted The Truth On Capital Gains

It is clear to pretty much everyone that saw Wednesday night's debate that the episode was a gotcha politics styled, banishment from journalism worthy, shoddy and miserable event. One moment in particular focused on capital gains taxes, probably the only time any part of the economy was mentioned. Gibson hammered Obama on wanting to raise it, claiming that when Bush lowered the tax, revenues went up. Sounds good for supply-siders when he says it, but is it true?

From Time Magazine's Justin Fox:

Here's a chart of the last ten 12 years of capital gains tax revenues, which first ran in a post I did in January:

My point in that post was that fiscal year 2007 is going to represent a peak in capital gains tax receipts not to be equalled for years to come--and it's lower than the previous peak in 2000. Over the course of the business cycle, a lower capital gains tax rate left us with less revenue. Now there were other factors at work--the stock market bubble that finally began to deflate in 2000 was of historic proportions. But you certainly can't declare from that evidence that cutting the rate increased revenue.

And this is even leaving aside the basic point that the trend for tax revenue in a growing economy is going to be up. So if you're going to claim that a tax cut increased revenue, you need to offer some evidence that revenue rose even more than would have been the case if rates had remained the same.

There are all sorts of good arguments for keeping capital gains tax rates relatively low (but also some good ones for keeping them pretty close to rates on regular income). But to repeat: Cutting them does not increase tax revenue. And that Charlie Gibson was spouting the totally bogus line that they do on national TV last night was an outrage. One of many, I hear.

Yes Justin, one of oh so many outrages. All of them add up to one thing, a moment of erosion for the fourth estate and the soundness of our democracy. ABC's debate and the questions from Gibson/Stephanopolous were atrocious, and should be an example for all future moderators to avoid at all costs.

Stephanopolous Took Notes For Debate From Hannity

Anyone watching last night's debacle on ABC might have wondered to themselves about the ridiculousness of the questions directed at Barack Obama. One of them even sounded like it came out of the mouth of the reviled Sean Hannity. When George Stephanopolous asked Senator Obama about his relationship with ex-Weather Underground member Bill Ayers I almost flipped out, but now we know that he was taking notes straight from right-wing scion Sean Hannity.

From ThinkProgress:

Hannity, who for months has been aggressively pushing a story about Barack Obama’s connections to a former member of a radical anti-Vietnam 1970s organization called the Weather Underground, interviewed Stephanopoulos on his radio show on Tuesday, where he pressed the ABC host to ask Obama about this:

HANNITY: There are two questions that I don’t think anybody has asked Barack Obama, and I don’t know if this is going to be on your list tomorrow. One is – the only time he’s ever been asked about his association with Bill Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist from the Weather Underground who on 9/11 of all days in the New York Times was saying “I don’t regret setting bombs. I don’t think we did enough.” When asked about it by the Politico, David Axelrod said that they have a friendly relationship, and that they had done a number of speeches together and that they sat on a board together. Is that a question you might ask?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, I’m taking notes right now.

Well he could have just been facetious when talking to Hannity, being an ex-Clinton staffer and all, right?

In the debate last night, Stephanopoulos asked a question that mirrored almost word-for-word what Hannity pressed him to ask:

STEPHANOPOULOS: A gentleman named William Ayers, he was part of the Weather Underground in the 1970s. They bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol and other buildings. He’s never apologized for that. And in fact, on 9/11 he was quoted in The New York Times saying, “I don’t regret setting bombs; I feel we didn’t do enough.”

An early organizing meeting for your state senate campaign was held at his house, and your campaign has said you are friendly. Can you explain that relationship for the voters, and explain to Democrats why it won’t be a problem?

I guess not. To Stephanopolous, Sean Hannity's trafe is relevant political discourse. That must be one thick bubble Mr. Stephanopolous lives in to honestly believe that, otherwise he was just performing a hit job on Barack Obama. You take your pick.

Condensing The Dumb Disgusting Debate

How pathetic was the debate? Watch how you can turn two hours of meaninglessness into less than eight minutes:

ABC Needs To Apologize...NOW!

What a complete and utter disgrace that we had to endure last night. Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos should be fired and scorned by the journalism community (whats left of it at least). At the very least, they should have to go on and make a PSA with them apologizing to America for the disservice they did to our country and our democracy last night.

While the audience "turned against Gibson" the rest of the nation was aghast at what they were watching on TV. The content of the "Gotcha" questions were suited for the pages of the National Enquirer or the Globe, not a network news channel that has access to the public airwaves thanks to the good graces of the FCC (inherently owned by the public, meaning all of us). ABC demonstrated they are one giant cog in the media machine that is destroying our democracy by making the discourse within it into petty politics and 'gaffes' that do not matter much to the lives of most Americans.

Americans care about health care, gas prices, what we want to accomplish in terms of workers' rights within our globalized economy, Iraq (the only real issue given more than 30 seconds by ABC), Afghanistan, China, the diminishing power of the dollar, the housing crisis, the rising income gap, torture, education, the greed of the financial sector and a whole host of issues that matter in the day to day life of the 300 million souls that reside in our 50 states.

Unfortunately we saw nothing of what mattered last night...except for what mattered to Charlie Gibson, poor guy is hoping that Obama doesnt cut his capital gains tax.

Again, it is time for an apology from these sorry shambles of what are supposed to be journalists. Until then, call ABC at (818) 460-7477 and let them know you are sick of being thought of as stupid and thoughtless by Gibson, Stephanopolous and network executives everywhere.

What A B C Disgrace

Last night's debate is still pissing me off. If you didn't see it last night, here's a succinct wrap up:

ABC Was The True Loser In This Debate

The ABC affiliate told me I was one of 60,000 that watched the debate online and that is a record. Despite that extraordinary number for new media, the actual debate was a disgrace. It took nearly an hour for Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos to get to any real issues that concern Americans that live outside of the D.C. cocktail circuit. The so-called "Gotcha" questions dominated the debate, while health care, torture, the environment, the mortgage crisis, veterans care and how will the Constitution be repaired were virtually ignored.

From The Huffington Post:

The Gotcha Debate: Sam Boyd at Tapped is angry about tonight's questions:

Seriously "does rev. wright love america as much as you?" Really? REALLY?!!!

Also, "what will you do when clips" of Wright "play over an over" on TV? [...]

A woman asks if Obama "believes in the American flag" because he doesn't wear a flag pin.

Charlie Gibson says that questions about the flag are "all over the internet" -- along with Pamela Anderson's sex tape, cats with bad grammar, and Rick Astley. Journalism at it's finest. [...]

And now, we're on to William Ayers. Gaaah. Obama says Ayer's is someone Obama knows... says he's also friendly with Tom Coburn who wants to give the death penalty to people who perform abortions. Attacks the whole idea of guilt by association, says "the American people are smarter than that." [...]

The debate is 46 minutes in, and nothing remotely meaningful has been discussed.

Exactly.

What a pitiful performance by ABC for putting the pathetic excuse for a set of question into the hands of Charlie and George. All three should be ashamed of making this debate about gossip and not issues that concern people who can't have lunch with elitists like themselves.

Are these "debates" finally over? Can we let the voters of PA, IN, NC, KY and every other state that hasn't voted yet decide who they want to be the nominee and not make it about the mindless drivel that comes from the traditional media day in and day out?