Thursday, July 21, 2022

Sippin' the Summer Kool-Aid

 NPR’s “1A” with Jenn White, 7/20/2022 – On “Economics” and “Coastal Grandmothers.”

Jenn White is one of the most efficient but clueless interviewers on NPR – serving up soft-ball questions without seeming to have any independent knowledge of the topics being discussed.  She never really questions an interviewee, or shows she knows something deeper about the topic.  Reporters are supposed to ask tough questions and actually have background information. 1A originates from Washington, D.C., so it’s an ‘inside the Beltway’ take served up to breezy liberal listeners across the U.S. I heard it driving through Kansas and Missouri.

GIVE ME MONEY

White interviewed reporters from the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post for the first story – two extremely centrist, establishment papers that are right of center and right of center. The slick talking WSJ reporter said what you would expect him to say about almost every economic issue.  The WaPo one, a middle-class ‘black’ woman, varied from grounded and frugal to market-oriented.

NPR did not have this interview on their website, so I only heard it once.  The WSJ hack with undisguised glee said that an international corporate tax, mumbled by the recalcitrant Janet Yellen, would be defeated by Manchin. White did not pursue this, as evidently saying ‘Manchin’ is enough to stop any discussion. He thought that rising prices are a ‘mixed’ phenomenon as to price gouging.  Oligarchic/monopolistic firms would use their controlling market position to raise prices, while all the used car dealers in the U.S. couldn’t possibly all be raising their prices together.  And why not?  White did not ask that.  He quietly pooh-poohed ideas that there could be interest rate products outside the market – savings accounts, CDS, etc. – that would make any money even in the context of rising interest rates.  White seems to have forgotten the U.S. used to have such a thing.  After all shadow banks, private equity and hedge funds are making high interest coups daily for their ‘ultra high net worth individuals.’  But not for the hoi polloi.  

The WaPo practical advisor said all the typical things – save for retirement, get a rainy-day fund, pay off your credit card, be frugal … even telling someone worried about debt who still wanted a massive wedding to have it in her mother’s backyard, with just family and KoolAid©. She advised buying food (crab legs!) ‘on sale.’ She assumed ‘regular Americans’ were spending like it’s going out of style.  Later she told 20-somethings to invest in their IRA/401K.  She did admit that some people couldn’t do all this, but ‘who’ or ‘how many’ never came up. White did mention that ‘some’ might not be able to.  Both were vague on class or color caste as usual, as most people are not middle-class or upper white collar in the U.S., but just trying to get by.   

Neither NPR’s White, WSJ boy or WaPo lady thought that perhaps there was something wrong with the market system itself. Every comment was within the current financial regime or never pursued beyond it.  Like Margaret Thatcher, NPR, WSJ and WaPo think ‘there is no alternative.’  There is.

RICH WHITE GRANDMOTHERS?

The discussion about the latest iteration of retro Cottage Core, the “Coastal Grandmother” clothing and ‘lifestyle,’ was a bit more perceptive, as this didn’t concern money directly so it could be relegated to the cultural space. Coastal grandmothers somehow now wear dangling earrings, cashmere sweaters and beige flats.  They seem to be all aging Diane Keatons or Jane Fondas, lounging around in their $2M retreat, sipping morning Italian coffees while gazing out at the waves. The two young stylistas interviewed knew that young people aping the fashion accessories of wealthy white woman luxuriating on the seaside or in the Hamptons or at their rural retreat was escapist nonsense – yet nonsense that was making fast-fashion brands tons of money on TikTok©.  

They put it to nostalgic yearnings for a ‘simpler time’ in a real world of stress, insisting that fashion styles have always been with us.  Always, throughout history?!  They did point to how fast fashion now churns styles constantly, but couldn’t bring themselves to mention the reason - profit.  They did say that much of these quick, trendy, cheap clothes get sent to charity stores, landfills or dumped overseas. Sadly, the listener comments seemed to jive with the marketing of ‘coastal grandmothers.’  TikTok© is now a prime outlet for clothing adverts to young people.

This is what passes for middle-brow news on NPR.  People like Jenn White, who is not that different from others on NPR, should not be called a reporter or journalist but a host … seeking not to offend her ‘guests’ unless they are left wing.  Then Scott Simon can put on his offensive, tough-guy pants.  That is a rarity, given the guests are most often professors, commentators, reporters, think tankers and military types straight from conventional, neo-liberal capitalist hell – as was this 1A interview on economics. 

Prior blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 15 year archive, using these words or terms:  “NPR,” “Doublespeak,” “Turning Off NPR,” “Keywords,” “The Lie of Global Prosperity,” “When Journalism Was a Thing,” “The Paper / Novine,” “The Post,” “No Longer Newsworthy,” “After the Fact?,” “Empire of Illusion” (Hedges); "Manufacturing Consent" (Chomsky).   

The Cultural Marxist

July 21, 2022

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