Excerpt Of The Day #2: Why Won’t The MSM Tell The Truth About Our Excellent Economy?

by John Hawkins | November 8, 2005 9:47 am

“Real estate prices are at their highest levels in history, as are homeownership and Americans’ average net worth. Unemployment also is lower than the average during any of the past three decades. Yet Americans are very down, and one third even think the economy is in a recession. Is consistently negative media coverage influencing public attitudes? Might headlines like “Job growth less than expected” and “Jobs come up weak” have something to do with the gloom being felt across the country?

The Labor Department announced unemployment numbers for October on November 4, and despite a decline in this rate and an addition to payrolls, the media reported the gains as “surprisingly meager,” “stalled,” “damped,” and “disappointing.”

As measured by the gross domestic product, the economy has now grown by 3 percent or more for 10 straight quarters – a feat that hasn’t been achieved since the mid-’80s and never occurred during the “boom” years of the ’90s. The unemployment rate now stands at 5 percent.

But consumer confidence as measured by the Conference Board, a non-profit economic research and forecasting organization, is at 85, its lowest reading since October 2003 when unemployment was 20 percent higher than it is today. At the same time, according to Scott Rasmussen of Rasmussen Reports, “34 percent believe the U.S. is in a recession.” And, a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll stated that 61 percent of Americans disapprove of the way President Bush is handling the economy?

Regardless of what economic data is released by the various government agencies responsible for such things, the media tend to report it as bad news. When the press make pessimistic predictions that don’t pan out, rarely will they revisit them or explain why they were wrong. And when data is reported that is better than expected, the press will often downplay it by suggesting that the numbers are preliminary but could be revised lower later. When such revisions actually improve the picture originally depicted, this too is largely ignored.” — Noel Sheppard[1]

Endnotes:
  1. Noel Sheppard: http://newsbusters.org/node/2718

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