Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 19, 1995 TAG: 9506200028
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Among citizens responding to various news polls, The Washington Post reports, half didn't know that the speaker of the House is Newt Gingrich, and 60 percent were unfamiliar with the "Contract With America," though the Republican rout in 1994 was taken as a mandate to implement it. One man interviewed by the Post knew not one of its provisions, but dismissed the whole thing as "politician lies."
The federal deficit? Mere mention of it is enough to raise blood pressures, but fewer than a quarter of people surveyed know that annual deficits have dropped by almost $100 billion since President Clinton took office.
Taxes? Clinton's economic package did raise income taxes - but only on the wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers. After it passed, a Wall Street Journal poll found that 43 percent surveyed expected to pay more.
This is not to suggest that folks have no reason to be unhappy about a budget deficit that still runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars, or that an unemployed worker's worries would evaporate if only he'd read all the stories about how healthy the economy is. But what an unremittingly glum world the uninformed inhabit if they truly believe that every politician is a crook, every government worker a goldbrick, every legislative action a stab in the back from which their hard-earned dollars spurt.
The danger in such cynicism is that people will find all of this so depressing, they will tune out - as too many, indeed, have been doing.
On the other hand, surveys show no information lag when it comes to identifying Judge Lance Ito. And folks who have no time to read newspapers or watch the network news do catch "Roseanne" regularly. Perhaps with Connie gone, CBS could try "The Roseanne Roseanna-Danna Report."
by CNB