Political Journalism and War

Political Journalism

Politico recently had an odd piece on Rick Perry, slamming him for his work in the 1980s with Al Gore.

Senior Fellow Chris Horner explains what’s wrong with the Politico piece—including its assumptions about what Perry knew about Gore’s climate change work, which wouldn’t come into the public eye for over another decade.

“You would think that there are enough actual political controversies these days that journalists wouldn’t need to invent fake ones. Apparently not.”

War

Paul Krugman recently had a column arguing that an alien invasion would be a boon for the economy.

Fellow in Regulatory Studies Ryan Young comments.

“War does not create. It can only destroy. True, aggregate numbers like GDP can thrive during such troubled times. Workers were cranking out munitions like nobody’s business. But those workers’ actual standard of living was not high; everyday essentials were being rationed. That’s the peril of relying on GDP as an economic barometer. It certainly has its uses. But over-reliance on it has made Krugman ignore other, harsher aspects of war. The fighting. The dying. The separated families, in some cases made smaller by the economic stimulus. The privation at home. The lost opportunities, economic and otherwise.”