The Economy: When You Don’t Like the Facts, Use Contrary Anecdotes, and Bury the Facts
Yesterday, Stephen Spruiell at National Review’s Media Blog noticed the NewsBusters version of this BizzyBlog post from Sunday on the continued decline in the welfare rolls as a jumping-off point to criticize an AP story by Liz Sidoti (my link is to the CBS web site insead of the Yahoo! link, but it’s the same story). I was trying to figure out what to do with it myself, because it’s a gloomy recitation of theh views of a few Midwestern “everyday people” on the economy.
Spruiell cleverly went for help to the usually astute Captain Ed, who did not disappoint:
Sidoti at least relates some of the true economic data, even if she does so dismissively. She reports the 5.7 million jobs created over the last three years, making hash of the argument that Democrats used in 2004 of a “job-free recovery”. Remember that canard? That doesn’t get a mention in Sidoti’s article. She also notes that unemployment is down to its lowest level in almost ten years and that wages are rising, although she claims that inflation takes a big chunk out of them. She also states ominously that economists predict “subdued” growth but most don’t expect a recession.
Interesting, then, that she chooses to lead with such a distorted sense of the economy in the first five paragraphs of her piece. If Sidoti’s job is to report the news, then why doesn’t she do so until halfway down the piece, and why did the AP headline writer create such a misleading banner for the story?
By all measures, the economy has grown substantially and broadly, and it continues to do so. Instead of reporting the real effects of the economic policies of the last few years, the media seems determined to distort the record by highlighting the exceptions and eschewing real data for anecdotes. Unfortunately, Sidoti’s approach will surprise no one familiar with the media’s political biases.
Read the AP story yourself. Captain Ed is absolutely correct.
