CNN's Lack of Perspective

Here's another pattern to watch out for. A "Situation Room" segment that aired yesterday highlighted 11,391 infrastructure proposals from the U.S. Conference of Mayors intended as part of the economic stimulus. CNN examined the document and found proposals for a $4.8 million polar bear exhibit, $1.5 million water ride, $20 million minor league baseball museum, etc. Self-described fiscal conservatives the National Taxpayers Union said "It's impossible for any normal taxpaying American to read this and not come away scratching your head and saying, wait a minute, this isn't about infrastructure. This is about political power grabs, money grabs."

Some of these criticisms are true. I'll grant that this is bad politics for the group of mayors, and in many cases bad policy. This is because individual mayors are faced with a bad incentive system: They have every reason to make ludicrous proposals, and little reason to hold back. Mayors want to take credit for "free" projects that their constituents like, to increase their chances of being re-elected.

It's important for the press to shame politicians for proposing such egregious projects because it helps reduce the incentive to make similar proposals in the future. The problem with this story is that, without context, it's used as a bludgeon to sway public opinion against any progressive investment programs at all.

In fact, Congressional Republicans are already using this as an example to argue against all stimulus. Scanning the report, the vast majority of projects actually do seem to both create jobs and provide legitimate value to the city as development (ex. public transit, alternative energy, public education). The "National Taxpayers Union" opposes all investment programs, but highlighted a few irresponsible ones to make their argument. The tone of CNN's coverage completely loses sight of this.

What's most striking to me is CNN's lack of perspective. They propagate a "drown government in a bathtub" group's argument against a stimulus program unchallenged, and express incredulity at its proponents without putting their cherry-picked objections into context. However, the three trillion dollar cost of the Iraq war dwarfs any proposed investment program, yet it's hardly put up to the same scrutiny. The choice and tone of each of these stories affects what kind of spending considered "acceptable" in our political culture.

We're going to start seeing more of these stories pop up. With Bush's irresponsible fiscal policies unchallenged by a complacent Congress and media, we racked up a massive federal deficit. Now that Democrats are back in charge, conservatives have found their principles of fiscal responsibility again. For them, it's time to starve the beast.

Here's the segment's transcript:

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOUDREAU (voice-over): You usually don't think a nearly $5 million polar bear exhibit in Rhode Island would help turn around the economy. But the U.S. Conference of Mayors sure thinks so. It's one of more than 11,300 ready-to-go infrastructure projects proposed by 427 cities, at a total cost of $73 billion.

SEPP: To the people supporting them, these proposals aren't a joke, but, to the taxpayers funding them, yes, it will be a joke to them. Only, they won't be laughing.

BOUDREAU: Just this month, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and other big-city leaders went to Capitol to make the call for their list of critical projects.

MANNY DIAZ, MAYOR OF MIAMI, FLORIDA: Our plan calls for investments that will stimulate our economy by quickly creating jobs.

BOUDREAU: Mayor Diaz even held up the report, saying the projects weren't a bailout, but a build-out to put Americans back to work.

(on camera): Did you have a chance to even read through the report?

DIAZ: Well, I read through -- I read through a lot of it. Obviously, I didn't sit there and look at all 11,300 projects that were submitted.

BOUDREAU: Why is that?

DIAZ: Why is that? I didn't have time.

BOUDREAU (voice-over): If he made the time, he would have found projects like a $20 million minor league baseball museum, $42 million for improvements to zoos, $3 million for murals, and even $1.5 million for a new water park ride.

DIAZ: You can't simply just say that because something like that it isn't right, that it isn't in fact right.

BOUDREAU (on camera): A new ride at a water park?

DIAZ: Well, you know, again, I would have to -- I would have to look that the particular project and try to understand why that city feels that it's an important project. But, again, we're talking about 11,300 projects, not just one.

BOUDREAU: The new ride at the water park is in your city. DIAZ: Mm-hmm.

BOUDREAU: So, what is your response? I mean, I'm asking you as a mayor. I'm surprised that you didn't know about the new ride at the water park.

DIAZ: Well, we have a number of projects, and I don't know which one you're referring to. But we just built a new water park. And it may be related to that water park, or it may be outside the city. I'm not sure.

BOUDREAU: A million-and-a-half dollars for a new ride at a water park.

DIAZ: But -- but the point is that part of investing in infrastructure also includes parks.

BOUDREAU (voice-over): While there were plenty of roads and bridges and water treatment projects on the list, we also found plenty of other interesting multimillion-dollar projects, like skateboard parks, museum and zoo renovations, aquatic centers, bike and horse paths, a dog park, even programs beyond infrastructure, to help prostitutes get off the street, and buy thousands of Tasers for police departments.

The total cost? More than $300 million. And many of the proposals in the report don't create jobs.

Pete Sepp of the National Taxpayers Union says, it smells like pork.

SEPP: It's impossible for any normal taxpaying American to read this and not come away scratching your head and saying, wait a minute, this isn't about infrastructure. This is about political power grabs, money grabs.

BOUDREAU (on camera): To the average American, doesn't this sound like pork?

DIAZ: I don't know. You would have to ask the average American.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOUDREAU: Mayor Diaz says he would hope that members of Congress would read the entire list of projects his group submitted to make sure that they are legitimate before handing over billions of dollars. He also tells us there will be even more proposed projects from other cities by the end of the year -- Wolf.

BLITZER: I know that states are coming up with all sorts of lists. And you will probably be going through those as well.

Abbie, thank you.

BOUDREAU: No problem.

BLITZER: Abbie Boudreau of CNN's Special Investigations Unit reporting.

UPDATE: Actually, I missed that Bill Scher raised the same issue yesterday. He points out that 1) 99.5% of the proposal consists of solid requests, 2) knee-jerk reactions to one-line descriptions of of these projects overlook the benefit that they provide to communities (by making them more livable etc), 3) the only perspective (NTU) was hardly credible, and 4) these attacks fall into a pattern of picking a few bad pieces of proposed government spending to undermine the whole thing.