I do get what Jazzy is saying, and yet the nuance and fact would have been to say "extending the tax cuts to couples and individuals making over $250,00 a year," not "the wealthy."
It would have been as well to say the bill was "extending government benefits to those that are not working" and "continuing Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy."
I don't see what's not neutral about the passage you quoted. It's an unslanted "nutshell" depiction of what the legislative issue was about.
Republican lawmakers did take a no-pass line on extending unemployment benefits --- they'd blocked the legislation previously --- and the president had taken an opposed position to extending the tax cut legislation to include the wealthy. And both sides had had to give on those positions to come to an agreement on the framework for the legislation.
Did you want the news side to just report: 69 percent of voters polled approved of legislation that will extend unemployment benefits and also extend Bush-era tax cuts. No "news" about the reasons for how the legislation came out the way it did??
I don't think that's realistic. News has to include the nuances, the reasons behind how things happened the way they happened and the news side should strive to be fair and accurate about how that's depicted. Then the clearly labeled opinion/commentators can go to town.
What you quoted is fair, unbiased reporting from my pov. I mean there's no spin like the unemployment is only extended for a year, but the wealthiest Americans received a two-year extension in the tax cuts......there's no bias to reporting that in forming the compromise legislation the Republican lawmakers had to budge on something and the president had to give up something. That is what happened.
I was listening to our local 50k watt flame-thrower AM news/talk station this morning. It's funny the difference between the news organization and the talk show hosts. The hosts are all center to right leaning, in some cases too far right for my tastes. The news is exactly the opposite. Almost always they will take the left/liberal position. It doesn't bother me except that the talk show hosts aren't News People, they are allowed/supposed to be giving opinion and commentary. The news folks are just supposed to report the news.
This morning the one that struck me funny was on the Obama/Republican Tax bill working its way through Congress. Here is the quote -
69% of Americans approved of the measure. Both sides had to give on areas that were hard to swallow. For the Republicans it was extending unemployment for those effected by the recession and for the President it was continuing the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy.
First off I'm not wealthy but I benefit, on a percentage basis, more than the "wealthy" with the new legislation. It could have been simply said that they were extending unemployment and continuing the tax cuts but they had to add the commentary. I just wish news organizations would report the news. I know it isn't that way anymore but can always lament the loss of staying neutral. Sorry for the rant.
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