One member of the left-wing media went above and beyond in beclowning itself in trying to explain why so many Republican-run red states, such as Florida under Gov. Ron DeSantis, are strongly outperforming their liberal blue-state counterparts economically.
According to an ABC News report from Friday, leaders in those red states, like DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, can thank not their policies, but rather … the weather and Democrats.
Yes, it’s true.
ABC News started out well enough, actually coming close to real reporting.
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“Nearly every week, a fresh round of strong economic data elicits a celebratory statement from the Biden administration. Most of the best-performing states, however, voted in favor of former President Donald Trump,” the network noted on Friday.
“An examination of key economic measures — including job and income growth — found an overwhelming majority of red states among 18 top performers,” the network continued.
Overall, 13 of those 18 states voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020.
“The disparity between red and blue states has little to do with anything Biden has done,” it added.
And that’s where the media-bias train jumped the track.
Instead of crediting red-state Republican leaders with low-tax, pro-growth policies, including clamping down on crime, the boom in GOP-land hinges on other factors.
“The dynamic owes in large part to the appeal of warm weather states for workers and businesses, as well as the combination of company-friendly state policies and Democrat-leaning cities that attract young, educated workers,” ABC News reported.
The network then quoted Mark Partridge, an economics professor at Ohio State, who observed, “The climates are better in red states, and Americans like good climates.”
ABC also quoted Edward Glaeser, a Harvard economist, who said, “The warmer parts of America tend to be doing much better than the colder parts.”
The problem for ABC comes when someone actually reads its reporting.
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For example, just a week earlier, ABC conducted a similar analysis focusing on five metrics: unemployment, state GDP growth, gas prices, home prices, and median income.
The outlet found that six states “grapple with a convergence of three negative trends: lower-than-average growth, above-average unemployment, and above-average gas prices.”
Among them was California, which arguably has the best climate in the country and plenty of those Democrat-run cities, yet, while being led by one of the most woke, anti-business left-wing governors, is stifled economically.
Compared to the rest of the U.S., California is underwater on four of the five metrics used by ABC in its Feb. 8 report.
Arizona, another well-known warm-weather state that has a Democrat governor, is tied with the national average in one category and lags the rest of America in the others.
On the other hand, Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota are places not exactly known for their balmy tropical climates but all of which have Republican governors, surpassing the national averages in four of the five categories cited by ABC.
Then, one has a situation like Florida.
Florida has nice weather, but according to ABC, we’re expected to believe its boom times are driven by refugees from lefty states in the Northeast and Midwest settling in Miami and Orlando — even as DeSantis has been in office, Republicans have turned a registered voter deficit of 300,000 into an 800,000-voter surplus.
David Strom, a columnist for the conservative website Hot Air, summed up the massive flaws in ABC’s propaganda:
“Given how important Democrat mayors are to prosperity, It’s quite surprising that Portland and San Francisco aren’t doing better. Those cities were considered Nirvana for young urban liberals for decades. What happened? They are no longer run by liberal mayors, perhaps. I should check when Republicans took over the formerly liberal big cities.”
“I distinctly remember hearing that Chicago is MAGA country. Maybe Portland is, too, now,” he added.
Strom noted that nowhere in its recent article does ABC even mention the role of GOP governors, even as its own “experts” repeatedly said President Joe Biden is inconsequential to localized growth within states.
“See, it’s really liberals who are driving the economy, even if they don’t like living in liberal states. And no mention that people are fleeing from Blue states to Red,” Strom continued. “Economic growth all comes down to good weather and lots of liberals. Maybe we should send the
liberals back north so they can revitalize the cities up there.”
“The MSM and academia–this story features the best of both–have become parodies of themselves. To write a story explaining that Red states are where economic growth is happening without once mentioning that Red states are run by Republicans who made policies that matter. This is a remarkable achievement,” he continued.
“They had to work hard to take Republican governance out of the equation, but they managed. Now you know what they teach in journalism schools–how to spin the facts in a manner that supports a narrative. Just find the right sources, ignore the most obvious conclusions, and trust that your liberal readers will walk away satisfied that no matter the reality, they are the smart ones.”
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