UNC Thinks It Can Graduate Competent Journos With No Econ Background
November 30th, 2015 11:57 PM
If you think journalists' ignorance of American history and economic fundamentals is bad now, give it a few more years.
The University of North Carolina's School of Media and Journalism "has updated its curriculum requirements to give students more choice and flexibility in meeting the school’s graduation requirements. The change is in response to consistent feedback the school has received from…
AP, Despite Weak Economic Data: 'Fundamentals Remain Solid'
November 29th, 2015 10:03 PM
As yours truly noted in several posts at my home blog on Wednesday and at NewsBusters on Friday and Saturday, the torrent of pre-Thanksgiving "getaway day" economic data was largely disappointing.
That didn't stop the Associated Press's Chris Rugaber from pushing the "All is well" meme late Wednesday afternoon, declaring, contrary to what anyone's eyes could see, that "the fundamentals of the U.…
AP Hides the Overall Decline in Thanksgiving and Black Friday Sales
November 28th, 2015 6:46 PM
The truth about this year's Thanksgiving and Black Friday store and online sales is out there. It's just that Christopher Rugaber at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, wasn't interested in clearly revealing all of it.
Instead, the AP economics writer told readers about the dollar amount of this year's and last year's Thursday and Friday store sales, but failed to quantify the…
AP's Boak Says New-Home Sales 'Recovered' In October; No They Didn't
November 28th, 2015 10:16 AM
On Wednesday, the Associated Press's Josh Boak added to the wire service's collection of weak "Getaway Day" business journalism by declaring that new-home sales "recovered in October."
No they didn't. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of 495,000 units reported by the Census Bureau was the fourth-lowest monthly level seen this year, even well below the 521,000 and 545,000 reported in the…
AP: Japan Is in a Real Recession, But Trying to'Pump Up 'Recovery'
November 27th, 2015 11:24 PM
Twenty years of economic growth averaging less than 1 percent have failed to convince Japan's leaders — and apparently its citizens — that Keynesian-style government spending and handouts are not the answer to turning that long-suffering nation's economy around. So the Shinzo Abe government, fresh from learning that the country is in yet another recession — its fifth since 2008 — is doing more…
AP Accentuates, Makes Up Positives in Covering Durable Goods Report
November 27th, 2015 7:00 PM
Ever since the White House changed hands almost seven years ago, press reports on the U.S. economy have annoyingly overaccentuated whatever positives reporters might find (or think they have found), while ignoring glaring negatives and omitting key items.
One example of such biased reporting came from the Associated Press's Martin Crutsinger on Wednesday. In covering the Census Bureau's October…
CNN's Hill Suggests Blacks 'Funding Our Own Genocide' by Shopping
November 27th, 2015 4:46 PM
Appearing as a guest on Friday's Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield on CNN to discuss Chicago protests that threaten to disrupt Black Friday shopping, liberal CNN political commentator Marc Lamont Hill suggested that the police had arrested the killer of a nine-year-old boy because it "diverts attention" from the recent release of the police shooting video of Laquan McDonald.
He also seemed to…
AP Headline, Opening Graf Disagree in Tagging Awful Consumer Spending
November 27th, 2015 12:49 PM
Economic news on Wednesday's pre-Thanksgiving "Getaway Day" was largely dismal. The government's report on October's personal income and outlays headed up the disappointing news. While incomes increased nicely — at a rate which needs to be repeated about two dozen more times before it can be seen as genuinely impressive — spending only rose by 0.1 percent, while prior months were revised…
10-Year Dive in Relative Media Mentions of 'Christmas Shopping Season'
November 24th, 2015 11:31 PM
As we head into the Christmas shopping season, yours truly regrets to inform readers that the relative frequency of late-November media mentions of the "Christmas shopping season" is at the lowest level in all of the years I have been tracking it — probably meaning that it's at an all-time low, period.
This is Year 11 of an effort which began in 2005. Each year has involved Google News searches…
Reuters: 2 Percent Growth Is Economy's 'Long-Run Potential'
November 24th, 2015 6:32 PM
Call it the triumph of the "new normal."
At Reuters today, after today's first revision of third-quarter gross domestic product showed that the economy grew by an annualized 2.1 percent, up from the late-October estimate of 1.5 percent, reporter Lucia Mutikani and Editor Paul Simao demonstrated that they have completely given in to the artificially lowered expectations of past seven miserable…
AP: Consumer Confidence Drop Occurred Despite 'Strengthened' Economy
November 24th, 2015 3:09 PM
There was yet another sighting of the U-word ("unexpectedly") in connection with disappointing economic news today.
Bloomberg News, which most frequently employs the word, told readers that "Consumer confidence unexpectedly declined in November to the lowest level in more than a year as Americans grew less enthusiastic about the labor-market outlook." Expectations were that confidence would…
Media Miss: Year-Over-Year Oct. Existing Home Sales Up 1%, Not 4%
November 23rd, 2015 1:56 PM
Gosh, this gets tiresome.
Once again, with one noteworthy exception, the business press's virtually blind acceptance of seasonally adjusted economic data, and its accompanying refusal to look at the underlying raw data, led it to paint a deceptive picture of an important element of the economy. This time, it was existing home sales for October. The seasonally adjusted annual rate for October…
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NBC Touts White House Using Baby’s Death to Push Paid Family Leave
November 19th, 2015 12:38 PM
Teasing an upcoming report that amounted to Obama administration propaganda on Thursday’s NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie proclaimed: “Fighting for family leave....How one mom's courageous battle for more time at home made it all the way to the White House.”
AP Buries Steep Industry Group Drops in Fed's Production Report
November 18th, 2015 2:46 PM
The catalog of wishful thinking technically classified as reports on the economy emanating from the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, grows with virtually each passing business day.
One of yesterday's additions to the mountainous pile came from the AP's Christopher Rugaber. Tasked with covering the Federal Reserve's report on October's industrial production, he devoted 10 of his…