1.
Blackout a "Metaphor" for Inadequate Government Regulation
A few journalists on Friday
and over the weekend raised "deregulation" as the culprit in last week's
big blackout, though transmission systems were never deregulated. On
Sunday's Meet the Press, Time magazine's Joe Klein pined for more
government as he saw the outage as a "metaphor" for how "we haven't taken
government nearly as seriously as we should, the detail work of
government. And it's coming to bite us." NBC's Lisa Myers argued:
"Deregulation has meant the interests of individual power operators don't
always track what's best for the overall system." On Today, Lester Holt
asked: "Is deregulation part of the problem?"
2.
Schieffer Suggests Companies, Not Customers, Pay for Grid Fixes
CBS's Bob Schieffer must
have flunked Econ 101, or never taken such a course. When, on Sunday's Face the
Nation, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham suggested electricity company
customers will need to pay for upgrades to the grid system, an incredulous
Schieffer pleaded, "Wait, wait, wait. Let's back up. So you're saying the
customers are going to have to pay for this!?" Schieffer recommended another
entity pay for it: "Aren't the companies going to have to bear some of this
cost?"
3.
ABC's GMA Obsesses Over
Possibility Terrorism Behind Blackout
Speculation about terrorism
really being behind the big blackout was not uncommon on Friday, but the anchors
and reporters on ABC's Good Morning America brought it up more often than others
and seemed obsessed by the possibility, raising it over and over again
throughout the show's two hours.
4.
Stewing Over Too Low CA
Taxes, Applauding Buffett for Saying So
California state government
spending has skyrocketed at twice the level of the benchmark for inflation plus
population growth, but commenting on the suggestion from Warren Buffett that
Proposition 13 should be overridden so that property taxes can be raised more,
on Meet the Press Time's Joe Klein declared that Buffett's "comments on
Proposition 13 were a fleeting moment of responsibility in this incredibly
stupid race." Over on ABC's This Week, Fareed Zakaria, Editor of Newsweek
International, also applauded Buffett as "right about California's property
taxes. They are incredibly low..." And last Thursday morning on NBC's Today,
Katie Couric fretted about how the California "government has very little
ability to raise taxes to pay for all these programs" which were mandated by
propositions over the years.
5.
CNN's Jack Cafferty Sued for
Leaving the Scene of an Accident
The AP reported on Friday that "a bicyclist
has filed a $10 million lawsuit against CNN anchor Jack Cafferty for leaving the
scene of an accident."
Correction: The August 15 CyberAlert
stated: "Because of the blackout, TV shows produced in Manhattan, including
NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien, couldn't tape a fresh show in the late
afternoon and the networks had to go to repeats." While that was true of some
shows, including Comedy Central's Daily Show which was unable to produce its
scheduled fresh program with Senator Hillary Clinton as the guest, in fact,
O'Brien managed to produce a fresh show in his 6th floor Rockefeller Plaza
studio, though without an audience.
Blackout
a "Metaphor" for Inadequate Government Regulation
A few journalists on Friday and over the weekend raised "deregulation" as the
culprit in last week's big blackout, though transmission systems were never
deregulated. On Sunday's Meet the Press, Time magazine's Joe Klein pined for
more and bigger government as he saw the outage as a "metaphor" for how "we
haven't taken government nearly as seriously as we should, the detail work of
government. And it's coming to bite us in a lot of different ways." Yet
government spending, both state and federal, increases every year.
Klein's argument in full,
made during a roundtable moderatedby Brian Williams which also included Bob
Novak and Doris Kearns Goodwin: "I think that what we've had is a 25, 30-year
period of unprecedented affluence in this country, and during that time we
haven't taken government nearly as seriously as we should, the detail work of
government. And it's coming to bite us in a lot of different ways. And, you
know, you want to use electricity as a metaphor, so be it."
On Friday's NBC Nightly
News, reporter Lisa Myers maintained, "Another problem: Deregulation has meant
the interests of individual power operators don't always track what's best for
the overall system and rules meant to prevent outages are now voluntary."
Earlier, during the 7am half
hour on Friday's Today, Myers similarly contended: "Critics of deregulation also
argue that privately owned power operators make decisions based on what is best
for their company, not necessarily what's best for the overall electrical grid
system."
MRC analyst Geoffrey Dickens
caught this question from Todayco-host Lester Holt near the end of Friday's
Today. During the 9:30am half hour, Holt asked Larry Makovich of Cambridge
Energy Research Associates: "Is deregulation part of the problem? Is it not a
case where you have companies that used to cooperate who now find themselves
competing?"
Makovich, via satellite from
the Boston area, agreed: "That's right. We've been trying to reorganize the
power business, to deregulate it now for about ten years. The institutions that
run these power systems have been forming up and are still not well organized.
The rules are still in flux..."
ABC's Ned Potter may have
stumbled into reality, as he asserted on Friday's World News Tonight: "Some
analysts say the problem has been a well meant but botched effort at
deregulation. Laws passed in the 1990s created incentives for companies to build
more power plants, but not to build the wires and transformers to send that
power where it's needed."
Indeed, as the Cato
Institute's Director of Natural Resource Studies Jerry Taylor and Regulation
magazine Editor Peter VanDoren explained in a press release on Friday:
"Deregulation has been fingered as a culprit, but thetransmission and
distribution system has NOT been deregulated -- in fact, regulation of this
sector has INCREASED throughout the 1990s. What deregulation occurred in the
1990s occurred exclusively in the generation and retail sales sector of the
business, not in the transmission and distribution end of the business."
For the press release, with
links to other Cato reports on energy regulation:
http://www.cato.org/new/08-03/08-15-03r.html
On several
occasions on Fox News Sunday, moderator Tony Snow pointed out how the regulation
of transmission prices leaves little room for profit and thus little incentive
to invest in upgrading those facilities.
Schieffer
Suggests Companies, Not Customers, Pay for Grid Fixes
CBS's Bob Schieffer must have flunked Econ 101, or never taken such a course.
When, on Sunday's Face the Nation, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham suggested
electricity company customers will need to pay for upgrades to the grid system,
an incredulous Schieffer pleaded, "Wait, wait, wait. Let's back up. So you're
saying the customers are going to have to pay for this?" Schieffer recommended
another entity pay for it: "Aren't the companies going to have to bear
some of this cost?"
As if companies, even
regulated electrical utility monopolies, are somehow independent money machines
which don't pass on costs to their customers.
Maybe Schieffer was just stunned by the idea that the federal government would
not impose a program to use taxpayer money to pay for any such upgrade project.
The exchange on the August 17 Face the Nation:
Schieffer: "I've
seen some estimates that it may cost up to $50 billion to fix this. Who's going
to pay that?"
Abraham: "Well, I think the type of money you're talking about relates to the
need for modernization on the transmission grid. Ratepayers, obviously, will pay
the bill because they're the ones who benefit. And that's where most of the
responsibility ultimately will be assigned."
Schieffer: "Wait, wait, wait. Let's back up. Ratepayers -- that means people who
pay in their electric bills. So you're saying the customers are going to have to
pay for this?"
Abraham: "The rate structure is designed to not only be able to underwrite the
generation of electricity, but its delivery. And obviously that's a long-term
cost. It's not going to all be borne in one year or a short period of time. But
that's the kind of long-term investment that will be needed to keep the
transmission system in a situation where we have the ability to both avoid
blackouts on the one hand and deliver power to people at an affordable level. I
mean, the fact is that Americans and people throughout the world demand more
electricity, want it affordable, but they got to -- we got to get it there. It
doesn't come out of the wall. It comes out of a long transmission distribution
chain."
Schieffer: "Excuse me for asking, but, I mean, aren't the companies going to
have to bear some of this cost?"
Abraham tried to explain Econ 101: "Well, of course, they will, and get,
obviously, we know that rate structures are set in a fashion that allows for
some sort of reasonable return on investment. And that means that the users are
going to play a role in paying for it."
ABC's
GMA Obsesses Over Possibility Terrorism Behind Blackout
Speculation about terrorism really being behind the big blackout was not
uncommon on Friday, but the anchors and reporters on ABC's Good Morning America
brought it up more often than others and seemed obsessed by the possibility,
raising it over and over again throughout the show's two hours.
MRC analyst Jessica Anderson
took down examples from August 15 of GMA co-hosts Charles Gibson and Diane
Sawyer, along with news reader Robin Roberts and investigative reporter Brian
Ross, asking guests to defend the claim the blackout was not caused by some form
of terrorism:
-- Gibson, during
the 7am half hour, to Michael Gent, President of the North American Electric
Reliability Council: "The critical thing, though, is everyone wants to know,
first thought in everybody's mind was, is this terrorism? If we don't know where
it started or how it started, how can we say it's not terrorism?"
And: "Well, we may know that nobody came in with guns and seized a power plant,
but couldn't it have been, for instance, some worker who may have sabotaged the
system, or could it be something in the software, which would suggest cyber
terrorism?"
-- Sawyer to Ross:
"We heard Mr. Gent say that it would have taken a long, long time, if indeed
this was some very sophisticated kind of terrorism. Any indication that they
were at work a long, long time."
Ross: "Well, Diane and Charlie, so far the FBI officials who are involved in the
investigation say nothing, including cyber terrorism, can be ruled out, although
agents have not found any obvious signs of intrusion. Even so, what happened
yesterday follows the precise scenario that law enforcement and industry
officials had feared could happen just three weeks ago....There are no obvious
signs, but a skillful attack would not necessarily leave any obvious signs...."
Gibson: "I don't want to raise any undo alarms here, and I don't want to say or
point too strongly to the fact that it was terrorism. I'm just wondering was the
government, therefore Brian, too fast in ruling out terrorism. As I said to Mr.
Gent, we know that somebody didn't fly a plane into a power station and we know
somebody didn't take it over with guns or whatever, but could there have been
some more sophisticated [sic]? Did they rule it out too fast?"
Ross: "Well, in fact, they haven't ruled it out. The officials making the public
pronouncements may have, but the agents involved in the case don't rule it out
at all...."
-- Roberts to New
York Governor George Pataki: "How can you say this is not cyber terrorism?"
Pataki: "Well, I can't say at this point what the cause was..."
-- During a 7:30am
half hour session with Richard Clarke, former Terrorism Czar:
Sawyer: "First of all, let's just put the question to you: Do you see any signs
at all that this could be cyber terrorism, and can you rule it out?..."
Gibson: "Yeah, and I don't want to get too hung up on this point and frighten
people, but what has concerned me is that public officials were so quick to say
that this was not terrorism, and as you said, anybody who says they know what
precipitated this doesn't know, and therefore, is it wrong for public officials
to be saying 'it was not terrorism, we know that'?"
-- During the 8am
half hour, Gibson to Bill Richardson, the Governor of New Mexico, though it's
hard to see how he's doing that job given his constant TV presence, who was
Secretary of Energy for President Clinton:
"Why are you so sure that it was just overload? Public officials, the President
included, were very quick to say no, it's not terrorism, and as I said earlier
in the first half hour of the show, we know it was not an attack on a power
station, but might it have been sabotage or might it have been cyber terrorism?
Do we really know?"
If it turns out that terrorism really was behind the blackout, the GMA team will
look prescient. Otherwise, they just seem unusually obsessed with thinking the
worst.
Stewing
Over Too Low CA Taxes, Applauding Buffett for Saying So
The problem in California, some national media stars have argued in recent days,
is that taxes are not high enough, a bit of sloppy analysis which ignores how
California state government spending in recent years has skyrocketed by twice as
much as the benchmark for inflation plus population growth.
Commenting on the suggestion
from Warren Buffett, now an adviser to nominal Republican gubernatorial
candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger, that Proposition 13 should be overridden so
that property taxes in California can be raised more, on Sunday's Meet the Press
Time magazine's Joe Klein declared that Buffett's "comments on Proposition 13
were a fleeting moment of responsibility in this incredibly stupid race."
Over on ABC's This Week,
Fareed Zakaria, Editor of Newsweek International, insisted during the
roundtable, with Michel Martin and George Will, that Buffett "is right about
California's property taxes. They are incredibly low compared to the national
average and with a $38 billion deficit to say that no, there will be no tax
increases, is whistling in the dark."
And last Thursday morning on
NBC's Today, Katie Couric fretted about how the California "government has very
little ability to raise taxes to pay for all these programs" which were mandated
by propositions over the years.
Fuller renditions of the remarks by Klein and Couric:
-- On the August 17 Meet the Press, fill-in host Brian Williams asked the
roundtable, of Bob Novak, Joe Klein and Doris Kearns Goodwin, about the
California recall campaign.
Klein relayed what he sees: "Insanity. We're seeing utter insanity. What we're
seeing in California is an excess of democracy and a dearth of citizenship.
Proposition 13, it all began with that. We've had 20 years of people in
California paying attention to these ridiculous propositions which promised low
taxes, more money on schools and a bunch of other things so that now much of
governance in California is out of the hands of the politicians. Warren
Buffett's comments on Proposition 13 were a fleeting moment of responsibility in
this incredibly stupid race."
-- Last Thursday morning, August 14, MRC analyst Geoffrey Dicks noticed this
question from Couric to former Clinton Chief- of-Staff Leon Panetta who appeared
with former Clinton adviser David Gergen: "Leon, in closing, California is a
tough state to govern because of all these initiatives that help, sort of
everybody and their brother. And yet the government has very little ability to
raise taxes to pay for all these programs. The Washington Post wrote an article
recently and basically said, 'The system brings to mind the words of another
strongman, not Arnold Schwarzenegger, but Mr. T, and that's, 'Pity the fool!' No
matter who is in office. Aren't they limited? Aren't their hands somewhat tied
to deal with this whole financial crisis?"
A Reality Check: As the Cato Institute's Chris Edwards, Stephen Moore and Phil
Kerpen documented earlier this year in their report, "States Face Fiscal Crunch
after 1990s Spending Surge," California's government has collected plenty of tax
money and its "budget gap was caused by a remarkable run-up in state spending in
the late 1990s under Gov. Gray Davis. Spending doubled between FY94 and FY01
from $39 billion to $78 billion. California's general fund expenditures jumped
15 percent in FY2000 and then another 17 percent in FY01. Thus, in just two
years spending increased by one-third."
The Cato trio added: "Although general fund spending jumped almost $12 billion
in FY01, FY02 spending was reduced only by just over $1 billion. As in other
states, newspaper headlines in California make fiscal restraint sound draconian.
A recent Los Angeles Times story declared 'Wrenching Changes Likely with Budget
Cuts,' but the 'wrenching' changes listed included such items as the first
university fee increase since 1994, small increases in admission charges for
state parks, deferral of some transportation projects, and a modest tightening
in eligibility for the state's low-income health program. Those are hardly
wrenching changes in sprawling state government."
An accompanying table laid
out how California state government spending skyrocketed by 108 percent between
1990 and 2001 while the benchmark for inflation plus population growth increased
by a comparatively modest 57 percent.
For the Cato report:
http://www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/bp80.pdf.
CNN's
Jack Cafferty Sued for Leaving the Scene of an Accident
The AP reported on Friday that "a bicyclist has filed a $10 million lawsuit
against CNN anchor Jack Cafferty for leaving the scene of an accident."
The unbylined AP dispatch
elaborated about the case against the co-anchor of CNN's American Morning: "The
lawsuit, filed Thursday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, alleges Cafferty
was 'reckless and grossly negligent' when he knocked Billy Maldonado off his
bike with his Cadillac and drove away on May 14."
The AP story added: "Earlier
this month, the anchor was ordered to pay a $250 fine and perform 70 hours of
community service after pleading guilty to leaving the scene of an accident. A
traffic officer and about five pedestrians ran after Cafferty's car to stop him
after the accident, but Cafferty drove through at least two red lights and
around other vehicles without stopping, dragging the bike beneath his car,
according to a police complaint."
Cafferty, the AP story
noted, "later told police that he'd seen a man on a bike who may have been a
messenger weaving in and out of traffic as he drove south on Ninth Avenue. He
told police that when he looked in his mirror, he saw the man getting up off the
ground but was unaware he had hit the bicyclist."
The short AP article is
online.
# Filling in all
this week as the liberal co-host on CNN's Crossfire: Left-wing activist/actress
Janeane Garofalo. Crossfire airs at 4:30pm EDT.
-- Brent Baker
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