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Most of the major media outlets have been downplaying or ignoring rising inflation and the worsening supply chain crisis for months, with some left-leaning pundits and hosts on certain networks even suggesting that worsening economic conditions for many Americans is “good,” Fox News reported Thursday.
As prices have risen steadily over the spring and summer of this year, inflation — which rose to 6.2 percent last month — is the highest it has been in decades, making this year’s holiday season much more expensive.
But the “mainstream” media, for the most part, has shrugged off the price increases even as consumers become more hard-pressed.
For instance, Yahoo Finance noted recently in a headline, “Maybe Christmas Shortages are a Gift.” In that story, columnist Rick Newman stumped for a “partial Christmas,” not just for the current inflationary period but for the foreseeable future.
“Save money, time and aggravation by exploiting the pandemic shortages to slash your shopping burden,” he noted.
“Collusion is illegal in business—but not in parenting,” he added. “So coax as many of your fellow parents into the scheme as you can. It’s a solid pitch: Save money, time and aggravation by exploiting the pandemic shortages to slash your shopping burden.
“Maybe you’ll actually enjoy the holidays for once. Use the money you save to buy something nice for yourself. If you’re nervous, keep some cash on hand for day-after clearance sales,” he offered.
“Maybe Partial Christmas is more like real Christmas than the Excessive version,” he wrote in conclusion. “Gutsy parents have a chance to find out.”
Earlier this month, MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle incredulously said that it’s a ‘dirty little secret” that most Americans can afford higher grocery prices.
“The dirty little secret here, Willie, while nobody likes to pay more, on average, we have the money to do so,” she told NBC’s Sunday Today host Willie Geist. “Household savings hit a record high over the pandemic — we didn’t really have anywhere to go out and spend.”
(Video: MSNBC)
“Nobody knows when exactly [prices] are going down, but you have to put this in perspective. This inflation is not in isolation, and the government predicted it is going to be a challenging recovery … all tied to COVID,” Ruhle added.
“We need to put all of this in perspective. This time last year … nobody had a vaccine. Now, 200 million Americans do and we’re seeing this push of demand, and that’s pushing up pricing,” she said.
Her remarks drew pushback from several online, including Meghan McCain.
As I wrote in my last column, all of our media suffers when all the people who run it are millionaires who spend all their time between Manhattan and the Hamptons.
Has Stephanie Rhule ever actually met anyone who lives paycheck to paycheck? https://t.co/Aas7IQ2K26
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) November 15, 2021
Similarly, MSNBC opinion writer James Surowiecki claimed that rising inflation is actually good for the U.S. economy.
“Even though millions of Americans lost their jobs, enhanced unemployment benefits and stimulus payments left many of them better off, not worse,” he noted. “And the stock market, after initially falling, boomed.”
Other left-wing outlets have also blamed, mocked, or otherwise lectured Americans who are being affected by the supply chain collapse.
For instance, Time magazine was rapped for “top-notch” journalism after posting a story under the headline, “How American shoppers broke the supply chain.”
The Atlantic has also ripped American consumers for the supply chain shortages.
“Supply chain problems could be solved more quickly if affluent Americans would stop buying up things they don’t need and often don’t even really want,” the progressive magazine noted in October.
And New York Times writer Sarah Jeong accused Americans who are increasingly concerned about inflation — which many economists have said amounts to a hidden tax on earnings — of “flipping their s—” over devalued assets.
But Jeong’s lecturing led Carol Roth, author of “The War on Small Business,” to respond.
“You could check just about *any* asset class and know this makes absolutely no sense – assets have been inflated to record levels by Fed $ printing and govt stimulus. Here’s the S&P 500, for example. Inflation is a tax that impacts the middle class and poor the most. Facts > feels,” Roth wrote in a tweet.
In an analysis for CNN, Stephen Collinson complained about how Republicans are lambasting President Biden for the economic problems that have worsened on his watch without accounting for “mitigating factors” such as a pandemic-induced rise in demand and COVID-19 lockdowns.
“None of these mitigating factors are stopping Republicans from exploiting the painful cost-of-living increases and prices at the pumps to slam ‘Bidenflation’ and to argue that the President’s ambitious political program is squandering past economic gains,” Collinson noted in a section called, “Republicans Pounce.”
Jon has over 30 years' worth of reporting experience, as well as an author and U.S. Army veteran. He has a BA in political science from Ashford University and an MA in national security studies/intelligence analysis from American Military University.
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