Opinion | On crime and the economy, Republicans dictate the media narrative

That is taking part in out on two necessary points: crime and the economic system.

Begin with crime. Every time one thing unhealthy occurs, comparable to a rise in homicides, the media inform us that it’s occurring and likewise find out how to perceive it: why it occurred, what it means, who is perhaps blamed.

As you most likely know, homicides considerably elevated when the pandemic started. Listed below are a couple of consultant figures: In Jacksonville, Fla., there have been 131 murders in 2019, which rose to 144 in 2020, then fell to 109 in 2021. In Fort Price, there have been 71 murders in 2019, which surged to 115 in 2020 and 118 in 2021, the very best town had skilled in a long time.

I selected these two cities as a result of they’ve about the identical inhabitants as San Francisco — although Jacksonville and Fort Price each have Republican mayors and Republican chief prosecutors. But they’ve many extra murders than San Francisco, which recorded 41 in 2019, 48 in 2020 and 56 in 2021.

Should you don’t recall the nationwide media headlines studying “Powerful-on-crime Republican prosecutors on defensive over crime enhance,” that’s as a result of there hasn’t been any such protection. Nevertheless, there have been many tales like this one from the Wall Avenue Journal: “Progressive Prosecutor Motion Examined by Rising Crime and Indignant Voters.”

The primary topic of that and lots of others is San Francisco District Lawyer Chesa Boudin, who faces a well-funded recall election on Tuesday. He was elected in 2019, and, like his Republican counterparts, hasn’t introduced down homicides.

Watch Chesa Boudin surf — and reply to his critics

San Francisco politics, like that of each giant metropolis, is extraordinarily advanced. Boudin has been feuding with town’s police since earlier than he took workplace; there are allegations that the police have actively tried to sabotage him. And the issues which have town’s residents offended — notably property crimes and homelessness — return a long time.

However within the nationwide media, this story has been framed as one among a progressive prosecutor whose liberal coverage concepts failed and produced a backlash. The truth that there are only a few such prosecutors, and that the rise in crime occurred just about all over the place within the nation, is buried within the seventeenth paragraph, if it’s talked about in any respect.

What meaning is that the story Republican politicians and conservative media need folks to imagine — crime is uncontrolled, and it’s all of the fault of Democrats — is bolstered by the media narrative. That narrative isn’t essentially false within the specific information it contains, however it provides as much as a grossly deceptive image. And will Boudin lose the recall, there will probably be a wave of tales about how even voters in liberal cities are rejecting a liberal method to crime prevention.

Joshua Davis: What Chesa Boudin’s recall vote may imply for felony justice reform

Now let’s flip to the economic system. In a current Economist-YouGov ballot, 55 % of People stated we’re in a recession, which is each bonkers and fully explicable. Amongst individuals who voted for Donald Trump in 2020, the quantity was 74 %; even 40 % of Biden voters stated we’re in a recession.

We’re most definitely not in a recession. The economic system has created greater than 8 million jobs since Joe Biden took workplace in January of final yr, a fully gorgeous tempo of job creation; unemployment is now at simply 3.6 %.

In fact, most individuals don’t know the technical which means of the phrase “recession” (typically outlined as a major contraction of the economic system, or one lasting two consecutive quarters or extra). For the typical citizen, “recession” simply means “the economic system is actually unhealthy proper now.”

The true state of the economic system is difficult. On one hand, there has virtually by no means been a greater time within the final half-century or so to discover a job and get a elevate. Alternatively, inflation is excessive, notably fuel costs.

You would possibly be aware that inflation is one thing folks expertise in their very own lives, and so they see fuel costs on big indicators in every single place, which is true. However media narratives inform us find out how to contextualize and extrapolate the issues we see in our lives, find out how to match them right into a broader image in regards to the nation and the world.

Common information shoppers see roughly a zillion tales daily about fuel costs, full with infinite photographs of fuel station indicators and interviews with Joe and Jane American on the pump, shaking their heads about how a lot that is consuming into their budgets. That type of consideration communicates that larger fuel costs aren’t simply one thing unlucky that we hope will ease quickly, however that they’re inflicting cataclysmic struggling — a notion that then will get bolstered by fixed Republican assaults on the president for not fixing the issue, when in actuality there’s little or no he can do to manage costs.

The lesson of those two circumstances isn’t that Republicans can simply dictate any story line to reporters. For each time they achieve doing so, there are a couple of instances they attempt to fail. However on two of the most important tales of the second, the media are giving them getting precisely what they need.