12/10/2004 12:27:57 pm
TV4 and American Tax Cuts. In Sweden, media often have a tendency to report about America in a negative, selective or misleading way. That is also the case in most other parts of Old Europe. During election times, particularly much negative is written and said about Republicans - with whom European journalists share few personal opinions. This fact has been analysed and debated at Amerikabrev and recently in detail particularly often i The Stockholm Spectator. The tabloids are the worst in deviating from objective reporting, but other news media sometimes also have that tendency. Yesterday at TV4, reporter Bertil Karlefors made a story from a Republican part of California. The people there were portrayed as rich people that just want to get richer by having their taxes lowered by Bush. This was accompanied by claims that Bush only has lowered taxes for the very rich. Nothing was said about the fact that everyone now pay lower taxes. But if you decrease taxes with one per cent, the person that earns 1000 dollars will keep 10 and the person that earns 10 000 will keep 100. And if you only decrease taxes for people with low incomes, you get a more progressive tax-system. That is why it was done for everyone. Of course, neither was it mentioned that the lower capital taxes, according to a new study, lead to a boost in the stock market that increased investor wealth more than $ 2 trillion! Such wealth is a precondition for investments and new jobs. The TV4-story ended with words like: and so the sun sets in the America of rich and poor. That is misleading and spreads prejudices about America.