4 ms·

> Is the media hopelessly out of touch? What income group do these media outlets think their readers belong to? If anything this kind of reporting might show w

> Is the media hopelessly out of touch? What income group do these media outlets think their readers belong to? If anything this kind of reporting might show why "bottom half of earners in America" are turning towards stuff like Breitbart etc.

daveguy 9y ago
I'm sure Breitbart is blindly trumpeting the tax cut, just without the profiles/statistics showing what types of people it helps. There's a reason these outlets are showing "typical" families making $250k. That's how they can show that "typical" families benefit significantly. Most news outlets also stand to benefit significantly because it is primarily a tax cut for businesses.
- phamilton 9y ago
  I think there's also the "I haven't made it yet, but I'll get there" mindset of a lot of readers. If someone hopes to be making $250k someday, then being assured that when they do they won't be penalized for it is reassuring.
- jrochkind1 9y ago
  I think they mostly just haven't been covering it. Definitely not the policy details, a little bit of the horse-trading.
  - gozur88 9y ago
    Taxes are complex enough that media outlets can't cover the details without having readers lose interest.
- eesmith 9y ago
  Here are the current headline on their front page which mention 'tax cut'. "Trump: Patriots Owner Robert Kraft Building Factory in N. Carolina After Tax Cut Bill", "Bank of America Paying $1,000 Tax Cut Bonuses to 145,000 American Workers", "Ted Lieu: Tax Cuts Make Poor People Jealous", "WINNING: Germans Fear Job Losses from U.S. Tax Cuts…", "‘Avengers’ Director Joss Whedon Has Two-Day Twitter Meltdown Over Trump, GOP Tax Cut Vote", "Winning: President Donald Trump Signs Historic Tax Cut Bill". Put "typical family" into the Breitbart search box. The first match is for http://www.breitbart.com/economics/2017/09/30/mainstream-media-distort-cohn-says-gop-tax-plan/ http://www.breitbart.com/economics/2017/09/30/mainstream-med... . In it, "Gary Cohn, the White House’s chief economic adviser and its lead advocate for the GOP tax overhaul" talked about the effect of the then-tax plan on "a typical family earning $100,000 with two children that has been a standard deducter, has used the standard deduction and continues to use the standard deduction". (You'll notice that Cohn used $100,000 of income, which is the same income that Texas Sen. John Cornyn was quoted as tweeting.) Other media sources misinterpreted that as saying that the typical family earns $100,000, when "the average American family makes $74,000 a year". Breitbart's article complained about "the difficulty of persuading a skeptical mainstream media that the proposal would cut taxes for the middle class." I found no article describing how the tax cut would benefit the typical family.
rainbowmverse 9y ago
I doubt enough people are turning to fringe conservative news sources--defined as "so far to the right even Fox News wouldn't go there"--like this to call it a trend.
creaghpatr 9y ago
http://www.people-press.org/2012/09/27/section-4-demographics-and-political-views-of-news-audiences/ http://www.people-press.org/2012/09/27/section-4-demographic... Matches right up with their reader demographics actually. News readership self-selects for higher income regardless of partisanship.
DubiousPusher 9y ago
Do you have data to back up the implication that poorer people read more Breitbart?
- creaghpatr 9y ago
  The inverse may be true, that Breitbart's readership may skew poorer than cable news or traditional print media, but poorer people in general probably don't read much news, so an argument that the average income of reader base affects the framing of the coverage probably isn't accurate. Most of Breitbart traffic comes from social media and is optimized for engagement, a la buzzfeed.
  - DubiousPusher 9y ago
    This reflects my understanding. Poor people read less news and vote less. But when they do vote, they prefer government programs. Which lately has meant they prefer Democrats by narrow margins.

daveguy 9y ago

I'm sure Breitbart is blindly trumpeting the tax cut, just without the profiles/statistics showing what types of people it helps. There's a reason these outlets are showing "typical" families making $250k. That's how they can show that "typical" families benefit significantly. Most news outlets also stand to benefit significantly because it is primarily a tax cut for businesses.

phamilton 9y ago
I think there's also the "I haven't made it yet, but I'll get there" mindset of a lot of readers. If someone hopes to be making $250k someday, then being assured that when they do they won't be penalized for it is reassuring.
jrochkind1 9y ago
I think they mostly just haven't been covering it. Definitely not the policy details, a little bit of the horse-trading.
- gozur88 9y ago
  Taxes are complex enough that media outlets can't cover the details without having readers lose interest.
eesmith 9y ago
Here are the current headline on their front page which mention 'tax cut'. "Trump: Patriots Owner Robert Kraft Building Factory in N. Carolina After Tax Cut Bill", "Bank of America Paying $1,000 Tax Cut Bonuses to 145,000 American Workers", "Ted Lieu: Tax Cuts Make Poor People Jealous", "WINNING: Germans Fear Job Losses from U.S. Tax Cuts…", "‘Avengers’ Director Joss Whedon Has Two-Day Twitter Meltdown Over Trump, GOP Tax Cut Vote", "Winning: President Donald Trump Signs Historic Tax Cut Bill". Put "typical family" into the Breitbart search box. The first match is for http://www.breitbart.com/economics/2017/09/30/mainstream-media-distort-cohn-says-gop-tax-plan/ http://www.breitbart.com/economics/2017/09/30/mainstream-med... . In it, "Gary Cohn, the White House’s chief economic adviser and its lead advocate for the GOP tax overhaul" talked about the effect of the then-tax plan on "a typical family earning $100,000 with two children that has been a standard deducter, has used the standard deduction and continues to use the standard deduction". (You'll notice that Cohn used $100,000 of income, which is the same income that Texas Sen. John Cornyn was quoted as tweeting.) Other media sources misinterpreted that as saying that the typical family earns $100,000, when "the average American family makes $74,000 a year". Breitbart's article complained about "the difficulty of persuading a skeptical mainstream media that the proposal would cut taxes for the middle class." I found no article describing how the tax cut would benefit the typical family.

rainbowmverse 9y ago

I doubt enough people are turning to fringe conservative news sources--defined as "so far to the right even Fox News wouldn't go there"--like this to call it a trend.

creaghpatr 9y ago

http://www.people-press.org/2012/09/27/section-4-demographics-and-political-views-of-news-audiences/ http://www.people-press.org/2012/09/27/section-4-demographic... Matches right up with their reader demographics actually. News readership self-selects for higher income regardless of partisanship.

DubiousPusher 9y ago

Do you have data to back up the implication that poorer people read more Breitbart?

creaghpatr 9y ago
The inverse may be true, that Breitbart's readership may skew poorer than cable news or traditional print media, but poorer people in general probably don't read much news, so an argument that the average income of reader base affects the framing of the coverage probably isn't accurate. Most of Breitbart traffic comes from social media and is optimized for engagement, a la buzzfeed.
- DubiousPusher 9y ago
  This reflects my understanding. Poor people read less news and vote less. But when they do vote, they prefer government programs. Which lately has meant they prefer Democrats by narrow margins.