Each week, it’s like deja vu.  The media continues to promote the false narrative that the spectrum of the budget debate consists of Obama’s proposal on the left, with Paul Ryan’s plan on the right. They are using this narrow vision to suggest that the practical answer lies somewhere in the middle.  The new line is that Obama’s “liberal” plan does not seriously tackle entitlements, while Paul Ryan’s “conservative” plan fails to consider raising taxes.

Meanwhile, the media continues to ignore the People’s Budget of the Progressive Caucus, while promoting the Ryan plan as a serious and bold proposal.  Even as Paul Ryan and his fellow house republicans self-destruct during town halls, where constituents in their districts loudly object to the destruction of Medicare, the media class remains unmoved.  Contrast this with the media’s nonstop coverage in the Summer of 2009, of coordinated town hall disruptions by tea-partiers during healthcare reform, and a clear pattern of ignoring criticism of conservative ideology emerges.

On Meet the Press, David Gregory hosted a round table about fixing the partisan divide over the budget with New York Times columnist David Brooks, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, republican consultant Alex Castellanos, and former Obama white house communications director Anita Dunn.  Unsurprisingly, the discussion became a competition between David Brooks and Alex Catellanos of who could better salivate over Paul Ryan’s proposal to privatize Medicare.  Statement’s made by David Gregory ranged from “both sides have to face some tough realities” to “You have to raise taxes on the middle class if you’re serious about balancing the budget.”

An identical conversation took place on Fareed Zakaria’s GPS, which included former Secretaries of the Treasury Paul O’Neill and Robert Rubin — “one from each side of the aisle” — to offer their opinions on whose plan will fix the budget deficit.  Fareed Zakaria made the following statements in his introduction:  “Democrats are still clinging to entitlement programs, medicare, social security, with no talk of real cost cutting, though the current system is clearly unaffordable” and “Republicans are playing politics with the vote to raise the country’s debt ceiling and are still blind to the inevitable need to raise taxes.”

The popular story being promoted by media personalities that both sides are at fault, since democrats refuse to cut entitlements and republicans refuse to raise taxes, is completely disconnected from reality.  When will the media interview guests that are not members of the establishment punditry?  When will they have on a progressive to discuss the People’s Budget? When will they quit ignoring the criticisms faced by republicans at town halls across the country?

Judging by the mainstream media’s consistent failure to include voices outside the narrow beltway consensus, one shouldn’t hold their breath waiting for the media to do its job.