The Christmas shopping season culminated a strong year for the U.S.
economy. But instead of ringing out the old year and toasting the
economys success, 43 percent of Americans think were in a
recession and thats a crying shame.
Call it Boo-Hoo Economics.
According to the American Research Group, the public is
split over the notion that were in a recession. Its no wonder
almost half of the American public thinks things are bad, because
most people only know what theyre told. For 43 percent of the
population to believe something so wrongheaded, there can be only
one culprit the major media. Journalists describe the economy as
strong, but with serious weaknesses when they are being positive
or focus on the housing bubble bursting instead of dwelling on the
55 percent gains home prices have made since 2000. Theyve even
discussed a possible recession.
CNN reporter Soledad OBrien described her view of the
economy on the December 5 American Morning, that how Americans
are feeling, frankly is scared. I mean, the war goes on, I look at
my heating bill. It may be triple what it was last year.
Of course Americans are scared. Why? Because the media
have been telling them to be scared. In the December 4 This Week,
columnist George Will said there were two reasons for bad media
coverage including the medias insistence that All economic news is
bad.
That certainly was the mindset in 2005. The year was
filled with numerous examples of media misstatements, wildly
incorrect predictions and good economic news either downplayed or
ignored. Journalists cried over ever new bit of money news and
warned of disaster at every turn. In the real world, unemployment is
at a mere 5.0 percent; GDP growth is at a whopping 4.3 percent;
inflation is low and weve had 30 straight months of positive job
growth.
Now take a look at one of the biggest news stories of
2005 Hurricane Katrina and its sister storm Rita. The hurricanes
that devastated the Gulf clearly had a powerful economic impact, but
that doesnt mean they were covered in a rational way. At the time
of Ritas landfall, CNN showed more than 20 mentions of the
possibility of $4 or $5 gas from at least 12 different reporters in
just five days.
The average price never exceeded $3.06. Whats a
63-percent exaggeration among friends? Just another familiar cry
from the gang at CNN.
Joel Havemann of the Los Angeles Times took a similar
doom-and-gloom approach with a September 3 piece, saying Katrina
would probably end the economy's 27-month streak of job gains. He
added that Katrina's effects not only on the Gulf Coast regions
where it struck but also on the national economy via higher energy
prices and disrupted ports could result in the loss of as many as
500,000 jobs in September, analysts said.
Sure, Havemann added analysts said, but that isnt a
get-out-of-jail free card. The prediction he wrote about was soon
downgraded, though Havemann didnt say so when he discussed it about
a month later. In his October 8 article, he said: The Labor
Department reported Friday that the economy lost a net 35,000 jobs
in September, far fewer than the widely predicted decline of 130,000
to 200,000. Once the final statistics were in, the economy actually
gained jobs in September.
It wasnt just the big stories. Economic and business
issues were poorly reported across the board. Inflation, consumer
confidence, housing and taxes were subject to substantial
misreporting.
Now the latest example of this crying wolf involves the
Consumer Price Index, a measure of the things we all buy in our
daily lives. Its comes out each month and is used to track the cost
of living. On October 14, CNNs Lou Dobbs the networks own Howard
Beale discussed the September CPI report, warning: Tonight middle
class Americans and those who aspire to the middle class face a
growing cost of living crisis. Inflation last month up at the
fastest pace in 25 years, while wages are falling.
But when the Labor Department released numbers last
week showing that inflation had declined by the greatest percentage
in 56 years, Lou was nowhere to be found.
Now you know the true origin of the word de-pressed
to have the media lament news about the economy. Only this isnt
just the media version of the little boy who cried wolf. This is an
ongoing and consistent attempt to depict a successful economy as a
failure. Its time we put away our hankies, got mad and demanded the
media do a better job.
Dan Gainor is a career journalist and The Boone Pickens Free
Market Fellow. He is also director of the Media Research Centers
Business & Media Institute
www.businessandmedia.org.
Boo-Hoo Economics
December 21st, 2005 2:00 PM
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