Comparison: Economic Reporting Under Bush, and Under Obama

Change font size:  A |  A

Ed Frank created an interesting little video that serves as a stark reminder of how harsh the Old Media was on Bush's "faltering" economy in comparison to today's hearts and flowers style of reporting during the age of Obama, even though the stats are far, far worse under Obama than they ever were under Bush.

Frank's video is shocking for its revelation of how Bush was slapped around and how every economic indicator during his tenure in the White House was deemed as obvious proof of the supposed though times we then faced. Yet now, every dismal indicator is celebrated as if recovery just around the corner. Under Bush the Old Media was sure the economy was a wreck, now the wreck proves we will surely be saved by Summer!

On his initial webpage, Frank added a few thoughts with his video in which he references some NewsBusters postings and personnel.

By the middle of 2003, a mild recession had ended and the economy turned around big-time, with the creation of hundreds of thousands of new jobs and whopping GDP growth of 7.5% in the third quarter. Yet month after month, the national media downplayed the good economic news with the dreaded “but,” as in “Positive economic indicator X was released today, but the economy is still in the toilet…” (Oh, by the way… George W. Bush was President back then.)

Of course, with President Obama now in the White House, the media’s economic coverage is the mirror opposite. As the unemployment rate skyrockets and hundreds of thousands of jobs are lost every month, the bad economic news is spun by Obama’s friends in the media: “Negative economic indicator Y was released today, but it’s not nearly bad as we’d expected, and besides, unemployment can be fun!“

As I watched more and more of this massive change in the tone of economic reporting recently, I decided to produce a little compare-and-contrast video. I did so not in the hope that the media will now start talking down a possible economic recovery the way they so obviously and unfairly did a few years ago, but just to shine some light on the almost cartoonish nature of media coverage both then and now. And maybe to convince a reporter or two to not ask Obama how enchanting it is to be President, and instead maybe ask him how in the world we’re going to deal with this chart.

All I can say is, great work Ed.