Good News Is No News

Paul Krugman writes about the apparently un-newsworthy success of the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"):

One of the remarkable aspects of the politics of health reform is the way conservatives — even relatively mild, seemingly informed conservatives — have managed to keep believing that Obamacare is unraveling, despite the repeated failure of disaster predictions to come true. Part of the way this works is that captive media and the right’s pet “experts” hype every bit of bad news, but go silent when the news is good (and, often, when the bad news turns out to have been a false alarm.) How many will even hear about the news that enrollments are once again running above expectations, and the pool is getting younger?  [snip]

So the program is achieving its goals, albeit with a somewhat different mix of kinds of insurance than predicted, and doing so more cheaply than expected. That’s a big success story — and remember, the critics scoffed at those expectations and predicted utter disaster.  (our emphasis)

The same lack of interest (or in some quarters, prevarication) holds true in such "good news" stories as the falling unemployment rate (always accompanied by a "doesn't tell the whole story" buzzkill) and an economy growing stronger (always reported with "mixed signs").

Look, we get it, but we'll belabor the obvious anyway.  There's almost never unalloyed "good news," and these storylines are complicated. For example, we've often pointed out the fact that in jobs, wages and income inequality, we have a long way to go.  And yes, we know it's not the media's business to be a cheerleader, either.  But so often the positive is lost in a sea of the negative: of cynicism, both- siderism, and failure to call out the lies, the frauds and the charlatans in our politics and society.  (Not to mention focusing on the purely puerile.)  It's no wonder so many Americans are pessimistic on the economy or have no clue as to how and why Obamacare is succeeding (see above).  In a media environment that prizes conflict and faux narratives over fact and reason, combined with a pervasive right- wing "media" propaganda machine, progressives are fighting against overwhelming odds.  But we have two powerful allies on our side:  truth and history.