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Daily Yonder
Co-editor of the Daily Yonder, an online news source for rural communities, and author of The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart; former writer for the Austin American-Statesman
PROFILE
Bill Bishop
Guest
FROM Bill Bishop
To the Point
Separating Fact and Fiction: Truth and Lies in American Politics Today Nobody should be surprised when politicians distort the facts or tell outright lies. In 2007, the St. Petersburg Times introduced a feature called PolitiFact . It's complete with a "Truth-O-Meter," and a range from "True" through "Mostly True" to "Mostly False," "False" and finally, "Pants on Fire." PolitiFact joined the Annenberg Public Policy Center's FactCheck.org . The Washington Post now has a regular feature called The Fact Checker . While such checkers promise to give voters the truth, they themselves are critiqued from the Right and the Left, accused of choosing the facts they check according to hidden agendas. Does one side lie more than the other? Do the media add to the confusion by trying to find "balance" between the two or are "facts" really what voters want to know? If so, why do they sometimes cling to beliefs in proven falsehoods?
To the Point
Is Income Inequality a Threat to the Middle Class? One hundred years ago, in the era of Robber Barons, the richest 1% of Americans had 18% of the nation's income. The income tax, labor unions and the New Deal leveled things out but, since the 1970's, the income gap has been growing again and now it's wider than ever. Are the very rich just the top of a healthy middle class, or is the economy a zero-sum game with top earners refusing to let their wealth trickle down? We hear a debate that underlies the issues being raised in this year's midterm campaigns.
To the Point
Tracking the Great Recession, Region by Region In Detroit, the median price of a home is now estimated at $7500, less than the lowest priced new car on the market. In Lehigh Acres, once a middle-class suburb of Miami, one out of every four people is now on food stamps. What's now being called the Great Recession comes hard on the heels of a massive boom in construction. Construction workers, mostly men without college degrees, are among those most likely to find themselves unemployed. Just as different sectors of the economy are hit to different degrees, so are different regions of the country. Wall Street's been hit hard by unemployment, but New York City is strong and diverse enough to rebuild. Other parts of the country may not be so lucky. We examine the impact of the recession in different regions and their different prospects for economic recovery.
To the Point
Opposites Don't Attract: Presidential candidates appeal to the "working class" and "ordinary people" with the promise of unifying America for the "common good." But that turns out to mean different things in different places, and it's not just a matter of Red States versus Blue. Wealth and mobility have freed Americans to move wherever they want to and they end up with people just like themselves, culturally as well as politically. What might sound obvious turns out to be an index of major change over the past 30 years. Is segregation-by-lifestyle dividing cities and neighborhoods? Whatever happened to "class?" Is political unification possible any more?
Recommended
To the Point
Will the Senate write a healthcare bill in secret? While Democrats and Republicans argue White House relations with Russia, another question is being decided behind closed doors: who gets help buying health insurance and who doesn't? We hear how the pros and cons are being shrouded in secrecy.
Left, Right & Center
How was the trip? President Trump's travels got less fun as he went from the Middle East to Europe.
To the Point
Trump's 'America First' goes missing abroad In the Middle East, President Trump is changing some policies of the Obama Administration—and reversing his own campaign attacks on Islam as a religion that "hates us." We hear about his visit to Saudi Arabia and what's at stake for the rest of his foreign excursion.
To the Point
Trump's new look at civil rights and global warming President Trump is reportedly ready to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. We look at the possible consequences. On the second half of the program, we hear about cuts in Obama-Era civil rights programs called for by the Trump Administration's first budget plan.