Greg Anrig on Tom Hamburger on Jason Furman
Apropos of LA Times reporter Tom Hamburger's gross mispresentation of Jason Furman:
Grasping Reality with Both Hands: The Semi-Daily Journal Economist Brad DeLong: Obama's selection of Jason Furman as economic advisor is criticized: [Jason Furman] was also quoted in a transcript from a CNBC interview in 2006 as suggesting openness to changes in Social Security that might include private accounts and benefit cuts. The approach he described sounded similar in some ways to that proposed at the time by President Bush. The Bush private accounts idea was anathema to labor activists, who successfully challenged the president's initiative.
Greg Anrig comments:
It wasn't a matter of "space" -- Hamburger simply got the facts totally wrong. If he had left out his errors about Social Security, he would have had more space. Jason may have been the single most effective wonk in the victory against SS privatization.
What was special about Jason's work was his relentlessness in turning around pointed analysis with fresh numbers every time new details came out about various plans, and all in nice user-friendly formats that the media could understand. Those kinds of skills are really huge assets for a campaign, as well as an administration.
And, yeah, Dean [Baker]'s work was also huge. As well as EPI's, TPMs, most of the economists, and many of the bloggers...
No sign of any climbdown on the part of the LA Times...
Why oh why can't we have a better press corps?
