NPR Read the Actual Plan. Fox Read the Politics of the Plan.

By the Between the News desk · researched with AI tools, checked and edited by a human editor

NPR: "war on the annoyance economy"Fox: "Democrats take page from conservative playbook"Annoyance economy estimated to cost families $165 billion a yearProject 2029 modeled on the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025Owner: nonprofit/member stations

👁Decoded

Democratic policy veterans are quietly building "Project 2029" — a governing blueprint for whoever the party nominates next, modeled on the conservative Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. One piece of it takes aim at what they call the "annoyance economy."

NPR's headline: "Meet 'Project 2029' — and its war on the annoyance economy." The reporting gets into the actual proposals: ending robocall and spam-text loopholes, forcing "click-to-cancel" on subscriptions, restoring your right to press zero for a human, cracking down on junk fees. NPR cites a real number too — $165 billion a year in time and money the annoyance economy costs American families.

Fox's headline on the same project: "Democrats take page from conservative playbook with new Project 2029." A separate Fox piece went with "Democrats launch Project 2029 agenda amid mixed opinions from strategists." Neither headline mentions robocalls, junk fees, or the $165 billion figure. Both are about the politics of Democrats copying Republicans' homework.

Fox's framing isn't wrong, exactly — Project 2029 is explicitly modeled on Project 2025, and there is genuine strategist disagreement about it. But "here's a plan to stop your cable company from charging you a fee to cancel" and "Democrats are copying conservatives' strategy" are two very different stories to walk away with about the same document.

One version tells you what's actually in the box. The other tells you who else has a box like it.

“One headline told you what's in the plan. The other told you who Democrats copied to make it.”