Compiled by The Mobility Agenda Staff
Some stakeholders promote coverage of poverty issues and policy, and recommend adopting a goal to cut poverty in half. We note that historically, when politicians focus on the poor and/or media coverage increases, public opinion opposing funding for anti-poverty programs goes up. At the same time, media coverage often reinforces problematic frames on causes of poverty and creates opportunities for opponents to promote these frames.
We provide these recent examples:
- “A New Strategy Against Poverty” commentary by Newt Gingrich
- Newt Gingrich answers Barack Obama’s call for an honest discussion about poverty.
- May 15, 2008: Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity
We need bold, courageous solutions that dare to be politically incorrect. So how do we endure and prevail? There are seven areas that I will describe briefly… First, it is important to recognize that we have an absolute, verifiable model of minimizing crime… Second, I believe that adolescence is a failed, nineteenth-century idea… Now we have invented a middle zone, where kids are bored, trapped in mindless bureaucracies, critiqued routinely, and end up hanging out, watching junk television, doing drugs, and having sex… Sixth, we cannot address poverty in American without fundamentally questioning the current social contract with Native Americans… Native Americans are 100 times more likely to have a baby damaged by fetal alcohol syndrome than Asian Americans. And yet, that’s not a medical problem. That’s a cultural problem… I have given you a large and sweeping overview. I truly hope that is the beginning of a continuing dialogue in which we are not afraid to address the real reasons people in America are poor and in trouble.
For more examples, read MediaCoverageandCommentaryonPoverty.pdf (174.23 kb)