Topic: Media Research Center
Apparently, it's "liberal bias" to report facts about health care in Finland. That's the impression we get from Scott Whitlock's March 5 Media Research Center post:
CBS This Morning journalists on Tuesday spent an entire segment hyping the glories of Finland and the country's free stuff, chiding the United States for falling behind. With very little discussion on the nation's high taxes, foreign correspondent Holly Williams and the show’s hosts praised the country’s paid maternity leave, hospital care and even supposedly free nannies.
Reporting from Finland, Williams praised: “In Finland, you're guaranteed around four months paid maternity leave by law. And parents can split another six months paid parental leave.”
Without offering much context, co-host Bianna Golodryga cheered the idea of dumping your kids in parks and handing them over to free nannies: “When I was there last summer, our tour guide told us women and families could just drop their kids off in the local park and they have paid nannies there where the kids go to work.”
Whitlock went on to lecture that "Finland has 5.5 million people. The United States has 325 million. No one seemed to think about the practicality of how transferring such massive entitlements to America would work." He went on to huff: "The issue of taxes seemed of little concern to the CBS journalists. Finland’s personal income tax rate in Finland stands at 51.60 percent, according to Trading Economics. The sales tax is 24 percent."
In fact, according to the edited video clip that accompanies Whitlock's post, it was noted that taxes are higher in Finland than in the U.S.
Whitlock concluded by huffing that "Journalists love to fawn over Finland" -- but he was able to cite only two examples of it, one from 2005 and the other from 1997. Three stories in 20-plus years is barely like, let alone love.
