Ignoring the Real Work

Here's a story about a story that's not really news because it's what usually happens. Check your favorite news source and chances are the story this story is about doesn't appear. Then look at what does. And it becomes clearer once again why we're not making more progress. And that's the story.

The story the story is about is this: the Obama Administration announced a $4 billion commitment to upgrading and retrofitting public housing as part of the Green Jobs initiative. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced $500 million will go to train workers for these jobs, which will include installing insulation, new windows, etc. $50 million will be directed to regions hardest hit by the Great Recession. All this was authorized by the Recovery and Reinvestment Act, known to twitterbrains as "the stim."

This program represents a first triumph for Van Jones, the advocate for green jobs who is now a White House advisor. "This is not some abstract, theoretical thing. By the end of the year you are going to see people who have no jobs, high-energy bills and no hope get jobs and see opportunity," he said.

When state and local governments are cutting back spending and services, particularly to lower income people, this is an unusual and very welcome bit of good news. But maybe that's the problem. There's not enough conflict in it, and it's not trivial enough, and there's nothing stupid to tweet.

Oh wait, there is. In the course of making the announcement in Denver, Vice President Biden's teleprompter didn't work, and he made a joke about President Obama and his use of teleprompters. And so when this event did get into a newspaper or onto a broadcast, the Biden joke--or gaffe, or possible gaffe--became the story.

To get the story of the green jobs program in America required going to a British newspaper, the Guardian, although the environmental site WorldChanging made it a prominent link. That tells the story right there, doesn't it?