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Many British politicians would doubtless rejoice at the news that Andrew Marr, Emily Maitlis, and Andrew Neil were to leave their jobs almost simultaneously.
That is the fate that has befallen what could loosely be described as their counterparts in Japan – Ichiro Furutachi, Hiroko Kuniya and Shigetada Kishii – three respected broadcasters with a reputation for asking tough questions.
Their imminent departure from evening news programmes is not just a loss to their profession; critics say they were forced out as part of a crackdown on media dissent by an increasingly intolerant prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and his supporters.
Only last week, the internal affairs minister, Sanae Takaichi, sent a clear message to media organisations. Broadcasters that repeatedly failed to show "fairness" in their political coverage, despite official warnings, could be taken off the air, she told MPs.
Under broadcast laws, the internal affairs minister has the power to suspend broadcasting that does not maintain political neutrality.
Additional coverage at LibertyBlitzkrieg.com.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by SanityCheck on Monday February 22 2016, @02:23PM
I thought he was kinda like their Regan: "pushing some sort of a made-up economic strategy that kinda-works but not really and won't be discovered to be a total failure till decades from now by which time he is immortalized in so many people's minds it won't matter to them."
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday February 22 2016, @05:39PM
pushing some sort of a made-up economic strategy that kinda-works but not really
Yes exactly last dying gasp of Keynesian economics. It was the nearly utterly dominant economic theory from the great depression till "now-ish". No one believes it anymore but there's too much history and political capital tied up on belief to just drop it. Kinda like the last days of communist rule in USSR.
It had a good run for awhile, but its obsolete having failed, and there's nothing dominant to replace it right now (more of a collapse than a coup).
Some of the replacements have their own baggage of course. Think of Mises, who is obviously more correct than Keynes, but comes with a pretty hefty pile of libertarian political baggage.
(Score: 5, Touché) by NotSanguine on Monday February 22 2016, @06:45PM
Yes exactly last dying gasp of Keynesian economics. It was the nearly utterly dominant economic theory from the great depression till "now-ish". No one believes it anymore but there's too much history and political capital tied up on belief to just drop it. Kinda like the last days of communist rule in USSR.
Actually, he was referring to the fiasco now called "Supply-side economics" which was pushed by the likes of Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman and Robert Mundell as the "anti-Keynesian solution."
I know you really love your narrative, and it's sad that it isn't true. I'm sorry.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday February 22 2016, @08:54PM
Maybe a good way to describe Abeonomics is until (if?) it starts to work, its everything nobody likes. I'm sure if it worked it would be everything everyone likes.
It does smell a bit of "we don't know what to do so we'll just flail around randomly"
but there is at least a component of broken window fallacy style stimulus spending in his economic free style break dancing routine.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday February 23 2016, @06:57AM
Actually, he was referring to the fiasco now called "Supply-side economics" which was pushed by the likes of Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman and Robert Mundell as the "anti-Keynesian solution."
What fiasco? Substantial economic growth did follow the two US examples (tax cuts in 1981 and early 2000s). Further, Japanese policy from the end of the Second World War through the recession of 1990 was very solidly supply-side oriented. And that was enough to grow Japan's economy to the second largest at the time.
I know you really love your narrative, and it's sad that it isn't true. I'm sorry.
You do realize Keynesian spending was part of the Abe platform?
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Monday February 22 2016, @06:38PM
I thought he was kinda like their Regan: "pushing some sort of a made-up economic strategy that kinda-works but not really and won't be discovered to be a total failure till decades from now by which time he is immortalized in so many people's minds it won't matter to them."
I assume you're talking about Ronny Raygun [wikipedia.org], rather than Donald Regan [wikipedia.org].
Even though Donald Regan was Secretary of The Treasury and pushed "Reaganomics," supply-side economics or trickle-down economics (take your pick of the appellations, it amounted to pissing on the poor), he most certainly wasn't "immortalized" for it.
I do take issue with your characterization, because it was obvious to me (and many others) as a teen in the early 80s that such a strategy was causing much more harm than good. In fact, I remember being really upset that I was too young to vote (by a month) in the 1984 election, because Ronny was such a piece of shit. Sadly, far too many people disagreed with me.
The fact that these [wikipedia.org] douchebags [wikipedia.org] were allowed to double, triple and quadruple-down on stupid in the ensuing decades still amazes me.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr