-Caveat Lector-
FAIR-L
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and news reports
ACTION ALERT: "Political Dynamite" Fails to Explode
Extreme proposals of Treasury's O'Neill mostly unreported
June 13, 2001
When a high-level government official calls for drastic changes in U.S. law,
it ought to be big news. But in an interview reported by the Financial
Times' Amity Shlaes (5/19/01 & 5/22/01), treasury secretary Paul O'Neill
called for sweeping changes in U.S. tax and social policy, and some three
weeks later, those statements have made hardly a ripple in the U.S. media.
Most Americans have probably not heard a word about them.
In the interview, O'Neill called the current U.S. tax system "an
abomination" that required changes to its "very structure." His preferred
changes? O'Neill "absolutely" supports the elimination of taxes on
corporations-- and the shifting of the tax burden to individuals, saying
government would work better if it "collected taxes in a more direct way
from the people."
He also called for the abolition of Social Security and Medicare, on the
grounds that "able-bodied adults should save enough on a regular basis so
that they can provide for their own retirement, and, for that matter, health
and medical needs." In fact, O'Neill believes the U.S. should reconsider the
whole purpose of taxation: "National defense is a federal responsibility,"
Shlaes paraphrases O'Neill as saying, "but all other outlays need review."
And O'Neill assured Shlaes he was not speaking only for himself: "Not only
am I committed to working on this issue, the president is also intrigued
about the possibility of fixing this mess."
The Financial Times described O'Neill's comments (approvingly) as "radical"
and "political dynamite." Yet the story has so far failed to take hold in
the U.S. press.
Three columnists at New York's Newsday noted O'Neill's remarks: Robert Reno
(who said the Treasury Secretary "comes across as a man who has paid a lot
of taxes and clearly resents it"-- 5/27/01) Marie Cocco (5/31/01) and Paul
Vitello (5/24/01). An obviously irked Vitello took it the furthest, actually
calling O'Neill's spokesman at Treasury to confirm that these were not
"made-up quotes":
"The secretary didn't really mean to say that no matter how old, no person
who has paid into the Social Security system all his or her life would be
entitled to benefits until he or she is physically no longer able to work?
He didn't really mean to say that ExxonMobil and Time Warner should be
treated as we treat the church-- as tax exempt?
"'Yes,' said the spokesman, 'that is our position. The quotes were all
accurate.'"
Thomas DeFrank of New York's Daily News also reported O'Neill's comments
(5/22/01), but he apparently got a different response from the Treasury
Department. "Treasury spokesman Rob Nichols said O'Neill's comments on
Social Security reflected his personal views, not the Bush
administration's," he noted.
Outside of local New York papers, the story was harder to find. Cox wire
service reporter Scott Shepard filed a story (5/20/01), which noted only
O'Neill's description of the tax system as an "abomination" and the claim
that the president was "also intrigued" about major changes, including
cutting corporate taxes. A short piece in the May 22 Investor's Business
Daily ("A Whiff of Reform in the Air") did the same, and was echoed in its
approving tone by a column in the May 23 Washington Times ("Signals for Tax
Repair?").
O'Neill has made several television appearances since the Financial Times
interview, but a search of the Nexis.com database turned up just two TV
references to the remarks, neither on a Big 3 network. The Financial Times'
own Robert Thomson teased his paper's interview at the end of a May 18
appearance on CNNfn's "The N.E.W. Show" whose main subject was the
Lucent/Alcatel merger. And Fox News Sunday host Tony Snow asked O'Neill
about the idea of "getting rid of the corporate income tax" on June 3.
(O'Neill declined to answer, saying only that "we need to fundamentally look
at the way our tax code works.")
What about the country's major outlets, the place one would look for a story
of such import? So far, O'Neill's radical statements have made it into the
New York Times only in an op-ed by Democratic partisans James Carville and
Paul Begala (5/27/01). USA Today ran an Associated Press column (5/22/01)
that placed O'Neill's calls for eliminating taxes on corporations at the
end, after discussion of estate taxes and "simplification" of the tax
system, and noted only that the Treasury Secretary has plans for "reform" of
Social Security. (AP's original headline on the piece: "O'Neill: Further Tax
Relief Coming," 5/21/01.)
Washington Post columnist John O. Fox used O'Neill's "abomination" quote to
shore up his own argument about the U.S.'s "monstrously complicated" tax
code, but ignored the rest of his statements. And the Post's David Broder
made no reference to the Financial Times interview in his June 6 column,
which referred to Bush administration plans to "open [Social Security and
Medicare] up to market forces."
Broder did note congenially that "as Treasury Secretary Paul
O'Neill...reminded me the other day, what makes the task so difficult is the
need to educate people about the current system, before they can be
persuaded that it needs to be changed as the administration proposes."
Indeed, the American people could use "educating" about just what the Bush
administration and its Treasury Secretary propose. But where will they get
it if not from the mainstream news media?
ACTION: Please write to national and local media outlets and ask them why
Paul O'Neill's calls for eliminating corporate taxes and Social Security
were not a major news story.
Some suggested contacts include:
ABC World News Tonight
Anchor and Senior Editor
Peter Jennings
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
NBC News
DC Bureau Chief & Host, "Meet the Press"
Tim Russert
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
New York Times
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Toll free comment line: 1-888-NYT-NEWS
Washington Post
Deputy National Editor (Domestic Policy)
Leonard Bernstein
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Los Angeles Times
DC Bureau Chief
Doyle McManus
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----------
Feel free to respond to FAIR ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] ). We can't reply to
everything, but we will look at each message. We especially appreciate
documented example of media bias or censorship. And please send copies of
your email correspondence with media outlets, including any responses, to us
at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
FAIR ON THE AIR: FAIR's founder Jeff Cohen is a regular panelist on the Fox
News Channel's "Fox News Watch," which airs which airs Saturdays at 7 pm and
Sundays at 11 am (Eastern Standard Time). Check your local listings.
FAIR produces CounterSpin, a weekly radio show heard on over 130 stations in
the U.S. and Canada. To find the CounterSpin station nearest you, visit
http://www.fair.org/counterspin/stations.html .
Please support FAIR by subscribing to our bimonthly magazine, Extra!
For more information, go to:
http://www.fair.org/extra/subscribe.html . Or call 1-800-847-3993.
FAIR's INTERNSHIP PROGRAM: FAIR accepts internship applications for its New
York office on a rolling basis. For more information, see:
http://www.fair.org/internships.html
You can subscribe to FAIR-L at our web site: http://www.fair.org , or by
sending a "subscribe FAIR-L enter your full name" command to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] . Our subscriber list is kept confidential.
You may leave the list at any time-- just send a message with "SIGNOFF
FAIR-L" in the body to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
FAIR
(212) 633-6700
http://www.fair.org/
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
list administrators: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
