Stopped Writing, Stopped Watching

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I haven’t written any posts in a couple of months because I simply stopped watching KTVU in the morning, so while Ross has lost a critic he has also lost something more valuable, a viewer.

On occasion I still turn on the morning news show and doing so confirms my decision to watch something else. For example, while the state of California fiscal condition continued to deteriorate we were treated to vapid segments on Michael Jackson.The event itself was significant and newsworthy but over the course of the cultural theater that played out, were we really best served by featuring Jackson stories at the expense of news that really does matter to us all?

As outlets like KTVU cover culture and entertainment as news, all in the pursuit of ratings that benefit their advertising business, the People are all made dumber as a result. When complex topics like Obamacare are distilled down into 2 minute interview segments with political operatives, we are all made dumber. When political careerist Don Perata trades laughs with McGowan and perpetually blames term limits as the problem in state politics… all the while conveniently ignoring his own significant contributions, we are all made dumber as a result.

Broadcast news is in a serious pickle, not far behind newspapers in terms of economic collapse. The signs are obvious, more advertising is being shoehorned in and personnel cutbacks are routine. One major Bay Area broadcast affiliate now has all of their anchors on month-to-month contracts, one former broadcast affiliate is already in bankruptcy proceeding with little optimism for anything other than a full dismantling and liquidation, and every newsroom features a cloud of gloom hanging over them.

It’s time to remake local news before the disrepair and rot is so significant that remaking will not be an option. Instead of pursuing Emmys and Peabodys, which is at its core producing news for an audience of people like them, local news journalists, editors, and producers should be focused on delivering the news that matters. In the end it may be that the traditional anchor led format for news just doesn’t work anymore, or that a fixed format of national, state/local, police beat, weather, traffic, and sports, has outlived it’s usefulness in an internet driven society with near universal access to 24 hour cable news. Time to rethink the news to stem the defections of people just like me.

Darrell Steinberg

Senate Pro Tem President Steinberg is on McGowan’s segment today. He’s trying to blame the problems in California on the national recession… when it could reasonably be argued that CA (along with Arizona and Nevada) could have triggered the financial crisis with our housing bubble. At no point does Steinberg reference the unrestrained spending on the last 7 years… where would we be today if the Legislature had not grown the budget by $25 billion over the growth of inflation?

McGowan, playing tough guy today, accuses Steinberg of shifting the financial burden to cities and counties. Steinberg provides a non-answer, McGowan doesn’t follow up.

McGowan also brings up the proposed release of illegial aliens from California prisons. What he doesn’t say is that President Obama was criticizing the Bush Administration for not reimbursing states for detention of illegal aliens who committed crime, so he was against the policy before he was for it.

Citizen Voice

Gary Dietrich from Citizen Voice was on Mr. McGowan’s segment this morning talking about the upcoming special election.

Citizen Voice is a new and growing nonpartisan movement of people who do care…and who are doing something about it.  It’s about inspiring, informing and involving citizens on behalf of all, especially the vulnerable who genuinely need to be protected…and need it now.

I missed the first part of the segment (getting kids ready for school) but what I did hear resonated with me. Dietrich talks about how the election process itself is part of a larger problem facing the citizenry.

First and foremost, the 30 second soundbite driven ads that are being substituted for real debate coupled with confusing voter information material produced by the state ensures that the broader population of voters is misinformed and confused about ballot measures. I also believe that media itself shares the responsibility and blame for this, just look at McGowan’s segments which never devote necessary time to fully expose issues and proposed measures, and typically feature guests with agendas not fully disclosed.

The second problem with our current election process is the increasing number of special elections, which are statistically proven to support or disapproval of proposed measures because of voter turnout. “Average voters”, if there is such a thing, are less likely to turn out for special elections than supporters of special interests that support specific measures and what that means is by manipulating the election process a special interest is more likely to get a favored measure passed or rejected than in a higher turnout regular election.

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Bill Press

I missed most of the segment with Bill Press but from what I heard Mr. McGowan asked some “pressing” questions of Press on the 100 days of the Obama administration but then again it’s pretty hard to be a bigger Obama cheerleader than Press so I guess any question that isn’t a fawning compliment is relatively critical.

Last question centered on Specter’s announcement about switching parties. Press, and many others, believe this fully changes the dynamic in Washington but considering the “blue dog democrats” are the swing voting bloc, it’s hard to imagine that the outcome in Washington will be much different than the status quo. It’s not like Specter didn’t roll with Democrats even while pronouncing himself a Republican.

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The Prospect for a CA Constitutional Convention

Jim Wunderman, CEO of Bay Area Council, is on the last segment of the morning talking about the proposal to hold a constitutional convention in CA to rewrite part of the CA constitution. I missed the first part of the segment because I had to take my son to school but this is  a subject I am somewhat familiar with.

First of all I think that Wunderman is sincere in his motives, which are based on the observation that most of us have made, which is that Sacramento is a failed state and something needs to be done. Having said that, Wunderman is being used by interests not interested in change that benefits the state but rather change that furthers their ideological agenda and by that I am talking about taxes and the ability to tax.

There are many good reasons for a constitutional mulligan in California, some of them listed in the article (a cajillion amendments, spending formulae that turn the budget into a self-perpetuating pretzel, and a jiggery-pokery funding system from municipalities to states and back on down to counties). But don’t be fooled for a second: The prize in this fight is reducing the tax threshold from 66.7 percent to 55 percent. It is an article of faith among the state’s political class that the two biggest impediments to governability are Proposition 13 (which caps property-tax hikes) and the supermajority rule. To even point out the state’s hysterical government and spending growth, which has not come with any noticeable improvement in services, is to initiate a conversation that many people (journalists, especially) have never held.

McGowan asked a couple of questions that deserved much better answers. First, McGowan suggests that social issues will get thrown into the mix and something much more convoluted than what we already have will be the result, but what Wunderman should have reinforced is that the constitutional convention proposed by this measure, which supporters are targeting for the 2010 election, would focus only on tax and budget aspects of the budget. I would have liked to hear McGowan ask whether or not this would have the effect of invalidating voter approved proposition that have a financial component but no dice.

Secondly, McGowan brings up the issue of who would attend this proposed convention given that legislators “probably can’t even sit down and have a cup of coffee”. Good question and that issue is central to the whole debate about this issue because who writes the rules drives the entire process and result. Supporters of this proposal simply don’t have a good answer and their vagueness on this key issue is the primary reason why it will continue to lag in the polls.

Lastly, McGowan said something amazing obtuse… that “Democrats and Republicans have been colluding to write the districts so that they can’t lose”. Ross, who controls the CA Legislature? Democrats and it’s is Democrats that drive the redistricting process, a process that was wrestled from their control by Prop 11, pass in the last election. It never ceases to amaze me that McGowan will say something as if he is just discovering a new dimension on a topic, all the while ignoring facts entered into evidence that make his point rather moot, and at the same time make an observation clearly indicting to his political party of choice so he skews it to reflect politics in general… I guess that is what passes for post partisanship at KTVU.

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Jackie Speier on Credit Card Rates

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McGowan has Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) on talking about a bill she is proposing that would restrict credit card companies. Her bill includes the following provisions:

- 45 days notice required for changing rates.

- No longer charging interest on balance at gross balance instead of gross minus balance payments (you pay your $2 balance down to $1,500 but still get charged interest on $2k).

- A 20 day grace period for late payments.

I don’t take issue with Speier’s proposals on their face but I do take exception to the notion that people are “too dumb” or “too lazy” or “too inept” to manage their finances therefore we need to restrict the ability of people to enter into contracts with financial service providers by restricting the terms that lenders can impose. Credit cards are unsecured revolving debt and have a lot of risk associated with them for lenders, but having said that the facts are what they are and over 40% of credit card holders pay off their balance on a monthly basis (as I do). Another segment runs not excessive balances and services their debt resposibly while the remainder run irresponsible balances and have a track record of late payments and delinquencies. With that back drop in mind, what Speier is proposing is a slate of benefits that go to the least responsible group of borrowers… sound familiar?

Speier’s basic premise is that credit card companies were marketing to people who Speier believes didn’t deserve credit cards in the first place, as in “college students and subprime borrowers”, and as a result they are engaging in predatory lending. “There are too many shenanigans in this industry and we need to reign it in,” Speier says while suggesting that banks receiving TARP money should be more responsible to the public.

As you can imagine, McGowan was throwing softballs and in some cases suggesting answers to his own questions.

What McGowan should ask Speier about the possibility that TARP itself is a predatory lender acting as a criminal enterprise...

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Piracy

Peter Brookes from the Heritage Foundation is on McGowan’s segment talking about the recent incident involving piracy.

McGowan begins by asking about piracy and the government, to which Brookes points out that there is no government in Somalia.

McGowan says “maybe the U.S. military is way too advanced” suggesting that others are saying this. He doesn’t say who is the source or in what context it was offered.

It’s preposterous to suggest that the military can’t deal with this given the success the military has had with drug intervention, urban warfare, and battling insurgency.

McGowan suggests that shipping companies are fine to deal with this as an economic issue. This is correct, there are less than 100 hijackings out of 10’s of thousands of ships plying those waters. This is a really isolated problem that while sensational from a news standpoint remains a niche problem driven by business goals rather than ideological objectives.

While I don’t find much to like about the argument I get that it is more cost effective to pay a small band of pirates tribute than take up the increased cost of arming and securing ships. International shipping insurance rates go up when ships are armed and entering territorial waters becomes more complicated. As distasteful as it sounds, shipping companies are best served by letting this play out on it’s own and they are probably betting wisely that international military pressure will assert itself and have the effect of securing the shipping channels.

McGowan closes by asking about connections to terrorist organizations. Brookes responds that there are no known connections but the fear is that there will be a hookup. This is a reasonable concern and I would hope that the CIA, NSA, and other security agencies have assets in place to provide competent intelligence when and if this develops.

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Downtime and Tea Parties

I have not been writing for over a week now, primarily because I was on vacation last week and totally unplugged. Ross McGowan’s 3 day work week also complicates matters but I can usually write filler based on whoever is doing the interview segments on the days McGowan is off.

Today is a big day with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on McGowan’s segment. I won’t cover it because the teaser offered that the focus would be on how the Obama economic efforts are stabilizing the economy… I really don’t think Pelosi is qualified to talk about the economy. I don’t mean to be snarky about this but I have yet to hear Pelosi offer a compelling and insightful comment about the economy, what I do hear from her is a stream of artfully concealed, often not, partisan arguments designed to further her political agenda, which at it’s core is about extending power and oversight of Congress.

The most interesting topic today, tax day, is the national tea party protest that is occuring in over 400 cities across the country. I hope McGowan will bring this up but I don’t expect Pelosi to address it directly. For politicians this is exactly the kind of protest that they don’t want to add fuel to because at it’s core it is a protest against government rather than a political party, agenda, or issue.

There’s good news and bad news in this phenomenon for establishment politicians. The good news for Republicans is that, while the Republican Party flounders in its response to the Obama presidency and its programs, millions of Americans are getting organized on their own. The bad news is that those Americans, despite their opposition to President Obama’s policies, aren’t especially friendly to the GOP. When Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele asked to speak at the Chicago tea party, his request was politely refused by the organizers: “With regards to stage time, we respectfully must inform Chairman Steele that RNC officials are welcome to participate in the rally itself, but we prefer to limit stage time to those who are not elected officials, both in Government as well as political parties. This is an opportunity for Americans to speak, and elected officials to listen, not the other way around.”

Doug Rediker on the G20 Summit

Doug Rediker from the New America Foundation with Mr. McGowan today talking about the G20 Summit in London. Rediker is well qualified in this area and having listened to him before I can offer that he plays it down the middle and, unlike other guests (e.g. Don “blame term limits” Perata), provides concise and direct answers to questions.

McGowan wastes the first question in a limited time segment by asking how important is the G20 summit. This is a wasted question because the answer is self-evident, it critically important on many levels, the least of which being the U.S. sending a new and unproven in international affairs president in the midst of a protracted global economic slowdown. Gee Ross why not ask what everyone is wearing?

Shifting gears to something more substantive, Ross points out that there are two controversies brewing in London, the first being international stimulus efforts and the second being global banking regulation.

What McGowan doesn’t point out is that the third is a manufactured controversy that European leaders are using as a foil, an inflated sense of responsibility that the U.S. should carry for the global finance meltdown. I say manufactured because this is being used to deflect European responsibility and lack of coordinated response and also because European banks were more heavily leveraged than U.S. banks, 35:1 versus 20:1 for U.S. counterparts, and the European real estate collapse has been more severe than the U.S.

Rediker, focusing on the question, points out that there is a real difference of opinion on the effects of stimulus. Germany, for example, is acutely aware of the effects of hyperinflation (read you 1920’s history) and this forms a base for political intransigence with regard to deficit spending as a cure for deflation and economic contraction.

I agree with the Germans on this point and it’s a real disservice that news commentary doesn’t drill into the current thinking on this issue, which is summed up as “reflating deflation and then bumping up interest rates to damp down certain inflation” as if interest rates are some magic lever that cures everything wrong with an economy. Someone should go back to the “way back archives” and look at the 1981-82 recession and how painful it was when Volcker contracted the money supply and increased interest rates (prime hit 21%) in order to combat Carter era inflation. What do you think happens to all those ARMs when the Fed has to raise interest rates significantly in a year or two to compat hyperinflation that is a result of the dramatic expansion of the money supply since last September?

Rediker points out that there was a lot of difference in opinion about bank regulation but there appears to be growing consensus. Time does not permit Rediker to expand.

This is true in that there is near universal agreement that banks require more thorough regulatory oversight but there is a huge disagreement over the nature of the regulatory body. France is pushing hard for a super regulatory agency that transcends government, a proposal rejected outright by the U.S., UK, and Germany, as it should. We have seen the effects of global agencies, e.g. the UN, and there is little appetite for more of them.

Lastly, there is a somewhat related issue that China and Russia are pushing, an international reserve currency that would diminish the importance of the US Dollar.

McGowan concludes the interview with this question: “What do you think the most important business of the G20 is this week?”

Rediker says consensus on 3 to 4 issues and nobody walking out, as France’s Sarkozy has threatened to do before the summit even opened. Global coordinated stimulus, dealing with protectionism, and increased funding for the IMF (will China put in a little or a lot). A pretty good summary in my opinion.

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Rep. George Miller

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I just walked in to my kitchen while Rep. George Miller was on with McGowan and the prescient question was asked by McGowan: “what about that fiasco last week on the AIG bonuses, first the outrage and then the discovery that there was a clause to protect them?”

Miller was super defensive to the point of not allowing McGowan to followup on his nonanswer, which he suggested was the risk that Congress would lose their ability to govern the issue if they didn’t respond with the punitive retroactive tax. His outrage rings hollow when McGowan askeded him is he read the 1,1oo page stimulus bill and Miller responded without qualification “yes”.

Essentially what Miller said is that he believed the bonuses were wrong to begin with yet he didn’t object to the provision in the Stimulus bill that protected him because he read “all 1,100 pages”.

This was an opportunity for McGowan to hold a local representative in Congress accountable for what has been revealed as a very public lapse in oversight and governance by the Administration and Democrats in Congress. You will recall that Republicans in Congress unanimously rejected the Stimulus bill with a handful of Democrats who crossed the aisle in a show of bipartisan opposition, Miller was among those unwaverering and enthusiastic in his support for that bill which contains the now infamous provision protecting bonuses that he now wants to punitively tax.

Once again, McGowan allows an opportunity to hold accountable those responsible for The People’s business to slip through his fingers. If McGowan can’t get beyond head shaking “what about that fiasco” as an expression of outrage, what will it take? Miller is a representative from a district in KTVU’s broadcast domain, the failure of local media to cover this issue with specifics and demand answers from local representatives is precisely the kind of media failure and public disservice that inspired me to start writing this blog.

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