Mickey Kaus over at Slate's Kausfiles blog noticed a remark Gloria Borger said to Chris Matthews on the economy. Apparently the media will beat the drumbeat of economic bad news until Nancy Pelosi becomes Speaker of the House.
When Gloria Borger announced on Chris Matthews that Treasury Secretary John Snow would be replaced after November because "the Republicans don't want to go through confirmation hearings and relitigate the economy before the [election]," you knew Snow would be gone by July. ... Yes, it would truly be awful for Republicans if in the days before the election the papers were filled with articles about their stewardship of the economy, their one remaining success story! It might push the news from Iraq off the front page! ... Does Gloria Borger really think the economy is the Republicans' weak spot? ... P.S.: When did Borger become Johnny Apple? [A long time ago--ed. Good point]
(HT Instapundit)
Noel Sheppard wrote in a March 22 Free Market Project report that "good economic news is almost overwhelming."
The nation pulled out of its brief recession in the fourth quarter of 2001 and has not experienced a single quarter of negative growth since. Four-and-a-half years later, unemployment stands at a remarkably low 4.8 percent, with more than 400,000 new jobs added in the past two months alone. The stock market is up 5.25 percent so far this year – bringing it to levels not seen since May 2001 – and the housing market, though cooling, appears to be landing softly rather than bursting as many had predicted.Still, TV news reports appear unconvinced that this economic expansion is for real – which might be why public opinion is so misinformed. Nightly broadcasts continue to deliver sour viewpoints in the face of continuously strong data. Their strategy of late comes in three forms: ignoring or underreporting positive data; exaggerating negative economic data; or cherry-picking large reports for the most bearish elements.
