In Contradiction to Conservative News Reporting, California is Reforming and Starting to Prosper

Texas Gets the Headlines, California Gets Results

The Governor of Texas has become newsworthy in part because he goes around the country trying to steal businesses from states that are not doing so well, in large part because they were not endowed with the oil, natural gas, climate or other factors that Texas was fortunate to have.  California is one of his favorite stops.

But of course the news media in publicizing all of this gets its wrong, as the news media usually does.  Elected over the furious objections of Conservatives, California’s Governor Jerry Brown has quietly brought the state back from disaster, back from the much hyped and little delivered Arnold Schwartzenegger.  The state has recovered its fiscal balance, is dealing with social and environmental issues and is generally doing much better now that Democrats are in control.  And by allowing illegal immigrants to drive legally California has made the roads much safer for everyone.

As for supporting business, well there is this.

Gov. Jerry Brown approved a package of 18 business-friendly bills. Above, the governor at a previous signing event in Los Angeles. (Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images / October 3, 2013)

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law legislation that was heavily lobbied by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and aimed at boosting sales of high-tech goods and services.

Four measures, part of a package of 18 business-friendly bills approved Friday, seek to ease the regulatory burden on developers of smartphone-based payment systems; reverse a retroactive tax hike on investors in small start-up companies, and create a "Made in California" program to help market innovative, locally manufactured consumer products.

So why is this not big news?  Well the news media has been subject to decades of attacks by Conservatives for reporting the actual facts, which as everyone knows are detrimental to the causes of Conservatives.  So cowed into submission they tend to lay low, to not offend because they fear Conservatives will not be nice to them.

Economist Brad DeLong often laments “why can’t we have better reporting?”.  Well we could if Conservatives didn’t see the role of news reporting in a democracy as propaganda for their causes.