ABCNews.com Links Dow Dip to Bush Speech

In a heavily amateurish move, ABCNews.com attributed a dip in an already sinking Dow to President Bush's speech on the economy with a top headline story in its home page rotation.

"Dow-ner: Bush Speaks, Stocks Drop; Friday address marks 10th time Bush has recently spoken on volatile markets," the teaser headline read.

The story in question took the skilled labor of a grand total of four ABCNews staffers, chief among them Martha Raddatz. In her lede she noted the Dow dropped 107 points in the course of the seven minutes President Bush spoke from the White House on the ongoing financial crisis.

But it seems Raddatz, along with Lisa Chinn, Jon Garcia and Kate Barrett wrote too soon. The market rebounded from its deepest losses earlier in the day to close down only 128 points.

What's more, the Dow's has been firmtly entrenched on a downward slide since the Friday that Congress passed and President Bush signed a Wall Street bailout deal. The free-fall on Wall Street despite concerted government action should raise questions by journalists about the wisdom and necessity of the bailout in the first place.

But why report the news objectively when you're dedicated to bashing Republicans and boosting the Obama ticket.

Perhaps that's why Newsweek rushed to also assign a down arrow in its daily "Conventional Wisdom" feature to President Bush:

"DOWN: Amid jittery markets, his speeches don't seem to help."