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JULIA SEYMOUR: Networks Stand with Wisconsin Unions, Ignore $1-3 Trillion Pension Deficit for Five ?

By Glenn Reynolds

JULIA SEYMOUR: Networks Stand with Wisconsin Unions, Ignore $1-3 Trillion Pension Deficit for Five Days.

For roughly a week, a battle has been raging in Madison, Wis. Evening news programs on the three broadcast networks framed these as “citizen uprisings” over pay cuts and “eliminating unions’ collective bargaining powers to negotiate wages and benefits.”

Reporters also portrayed this as a national union issue, but mostly failed to point out the national problem of pension underfunding.

Actually, the battle is the result of Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s attempts to balance the state budget by asking roughly 300,000 state employees to contribute more to their pension funds and health insurance and give up the ability to negotiate more than their wages. According to CNNMoney, the state faces a $3.6 billion budget deficit.

Only 1 out of 24 network evening stories about the Wisconsin “feud” since Feb. 16, reported a critical number relating to union pensions: $1 trillion. That’s the huge deficit facing public workers’ pensions in America and the reason Walker and other state governors are facing tough choices including demanding public workers contribute more.

You want that kind of coverage, you’ve got to go to premium information sources like InstaPundit.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on February 23, 2011 (boomark / email).