IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING POSTS:
- May 14 — As Media Ogles, Stanley Kurtz Trumpets the Obviously Deep Obama-Wright Connections
- May 12 — Attention Stanley Kurtz Re Obama, Wright, Trumpet: I’ve Got You Covered

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Based on my review of the 125 or so weekly Trinity United Church of Christ church bulletins that I have — covering roughly 65% of those I would expect to have been issued from late May 2004 through late March 2008 — here are some of the notable luminaries who have graced the cover of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s usually-monthly Trumpet Newsmagazine.

I’ll concentrate on the ones whom I believe are the best-known. “Soon” (OK, maybe), I’m going to get to a chronology of magazine cover appearances, mentions, and topics.

Obama’s Appearances

Here, for those who missed it the first time around, are the three covers on which Barack Obama appeared (March 2007, roughly February-March 2006, and roughly January 2005, respectively; first and third images are clickable, and will open in a separate window):

Guess Who? It’s Lou

Besides Wright himself in earlier issues of the magazine, I found only one person who put in as many cover appearances as Obama in the bulletins I currently have available. Surprise (not) — That person would be “The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan” (Trumpet’s term, not mine).

Here are the Farrakhan appearances I found (and there may be others in the gaps I have between bulletins), from the most to least recent, appearing from left to right (all graphics are clickable; each will open in a separate window):

The first pic appears to be the November - December 2007 double issue, as found in the December 2, 2007 TUCC bulletin.

The second, as noted in this previous post, and pictured in the Obama collection above, is from roughly February 2006. Farrakhan appears in a pantheon of African-American “leaders,” including Barack Obama, Wright, and others (Little Green Footballs readers have identified many of the others at this LGF post; Martin Luther King is NOT in the picture). Farrakhan is on the far right in the third row; Obama is on the far left.

The third, yet another solo appearance (cover title: “Million Man Management”), was found in the October 16, 2005 bulletin, and is probably the October 2005 issue of Trumpet.

We’re supposed to believe Obama when he says that he has no idea that Farrakhan has been on Trumpet’s cover at least three times, in one instance sharing cover space with Farrakhan and Wright, his pastor. All the pundits and media types who are still running around claiming that Wright (and Ayers, and Rezko) don’t matter either don’t care, or somehow have no idea, how foolish the results of the last three primaries, and Obama’s multi-month downward trajectory, make them look.

The Usuals

You might expect the two usual “civil rights” suspects, Jesse Jackson and Al “$1.5 Million in Back Taxes” Sharpton, aka Al “Close This City” Sharpton, to get cover treatment, and they do, a couple of times each (all graphics are clickable; each will open in a separate window):

Jackson’s solo appearance, found in the June 25, 2006 TUCC bulletin, is in the June 2006 issue. Sharpton’s solo, found in the October 12, 2006 bulletin, is in the October 2006 issue. Each appears in a mini-pantheon of eight people, one of whom is Wright, in the November-December 2006 double issue, seen in the December 17, 2006 bulletin.

The Wright Pics

Barack Obama’s senior pastor put in quite a few appearances in earlier Trumpet issues (all graphics are clickable; each will open in a separate window):

They would be, from left to right: found in the May 30, 2004 TUCC bulletin, showing two Trumpet issues, presumably from 2004; in the January 30, 2005 bulletin, probably the February 2005 issue; and in the March 20, 2005 bulletin, probably the April 2005 issue.

Other Recognizables (all graphics are clickable; each will open in a separate window)

From left to right, then top to bottom, they are:

• Former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley (September 11, 2005 bulletin; probably September 2005 Trumpet).
• The rapper-activist “Common” (bulletin and Trumpet dates to be determined), who also appears in the “Legacy Lives On” pantheon noted earlier.
• Now-indicted and current Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (August 12, 2007 bulletin, in what is probably either the August or September 2007 issue).
• Father Michael Pfleger, a “Catholic” priest on Chicago’s South Side who has gained a bit of national notoriety for his strident, celebratory defense of Wright (July 8, 2007 bulletin, in a midyear double-cover double Trumpet issue).
• New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (September 24, 2006 bulletin, in a Summer 2006 double-cover double issue, probably July-August) — a natural selection for the Katrina-obsessed Wright.

* * * * * * *

These are the people I recognized, from my perspective, as either controversial in and of themselves, or who are well-known politicians. There are many others I have not previously heard of, or who, while recognizable, appear to be relatively non-controversial. I suppose readers can decide that if/when I finish compiling what I know of the Trumpet cover chronology.

If we are to believe Barack Obama, he and his wife have been oblivious to all of this. No. Way.

For what it’s worth, it appears that Trumpet Newsmagazine stopped advertising in the TUCC bulletin just before or just after the end of 2007, which explains why I have no information about who has graced the covers of the magazine’s 2008 issues.

It must be nice to be on Old Media’s “free pass” list.

For years, Apple Computer has been on that list (disclosure: yours truly is a 23-year Mac user). Apple has been the cool, innovative tech darling, the noble foil of big, bad monopolist Microsoft.

Another free-pass beneficiary is Al Gore, who sits on Apple’s Board of Directors.

Wait until you see what ClimateCounts.org thinks of Apple’s record on “fighting global warming,” especially in comparison to its industry peers (HT InfoWorld via Kevin at Pundit Review):

( Links: Sector Company Scores; Apple’s Overall Scorecard)

According to Apple’s detailed scorecard (PDF), the company scored a zero in 18 of the 22 measurement criteria. Some of them include (bold is mine):

• Item 13 — Has the company achieved emissions reductions?
• Item 5 — Is there external, qualified third party verification of emissions data, reductions, and reporting (where applicable)?
• Item 18 — Does the company require suppliers to take climate change action or give preference to those that do?
• Item 19 — Does the company support public policy that could require mandatory climate change action by business?

In 2006, Apple’s score was “2.” I doubt that ClimateCounts.org has set aside a “most improved” award for the company’s 9-point 2007 pickup.

Note that I do not subscribe to any of this nonsense. “Climate friendliness” is part of the broader, dangerous notion of “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR). As I have noted before, companies that embrace CSR, or cynically give into it in the name of appeasement, are engaging in an an economic and ideological sellout to groups who are, at bottom, hostile to capitalism. The late Milton Friedman was and still is right when he wrote that CSR is a “fundamentally subversive doctrine,” and that “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits.”

But, though he is careful about when and where he talks about it (note that his Nobel Prize acceptance speech makes no direct reference to business), Al Gore does subscribe to CSR.

Here’s an interesting possibility: One of the reasons Apple is financially outperforming its peers under Gore’s “oversight” may be that it’s not allowing itself to be overly distracted by CSR, and that Gore’s mere presence on the Board is enabling the company to escape activists’ wrath. If so, how “convenient.”

You would think that journalists who have swallowed whole the gospel of globaloney (my term for the mistaken beliefs that catastrophic global warming is taking place, and that it’s largely caused by human activity) to be giving Apple and Gore some, uh, heat over the company’s “disgraceful” (as ClimateCounts.org defines it) record of environmental stewardship.

But it appears that when you’re on the “free pass” list, all is forgiven.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

So the New York Times, as it lays people off, partially blames Bush — falsely, of course:

A little over two months ago, I told you that we would have to reduce staff within the newsroom by roughly 100 jobs given the difficult financial challenges facing our business and the deteriorating national economy.

Our hope, as you know, was that we could trim our payroll by encouraging enough volunteers to accept buyout offers. While the overwhelming majority of our reductions did indeed come from volunteers, we have been forced to resort to a relatively small numbers of layoffs to meet our assigned goal. (We are not going to discuss numbers or the details of the staff reduction, nor will we be releasing a list of names.)

Earth to Times: Stop reading your own bogus economic articles. Things are improving, not deteriorating, and the “challenges facing (y)our business” haven’t stopped your two Gotham rivals from holding their own.

The Times has been catching flak (HT Instapundit) for not releasing the names, and somewhat deservedly so, since it would release the names of those laid off at other companies, especially unfavored ones, in a heartbeat if it ever got its hands on such a list (or at a minimum would hound each released employee for an interview in search of dirt).

My bigger beef is that in a truly professional organization, the Times, as a company, would be giving them professional send-offs and good-luck wishes, including letting the employment market know who’s available publicly (unless the person involved wished otherwise). But the Times is not a professional organization.

The Times’s Newspaper Guild thinks the “Company appears to have violated (the) contract” in its handling of the layoffs.

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Speaking of the Times — On Wednesday, it had a rare example of pretty decent business commentary by the Times’s David Leonhardt, who nonetehless still owes us a retraction of his bogus “manufacturing recession” call over a year ago) —

….. when the new inflation numbers come out next week, they will indeed be misleading. They will be artificially high.

Rhetorically excessive question: “How much inflation has there been in the 19 years Wendy’s has had its 99-cent menu?” Yeah, I know it’s more than zero; but it’s barely so.

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The rebuilding of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minnesota is an ahead-of-schedule, temporary privatization success.

Locally, we should be treating the rebuilding/replacement of the Brent Spence Bridge connecting Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky similarly. It certainly shouldn’t take seven freaking years — until construction (hopefully) begins (not kidding).

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As he was on Wednesday, the Associated Press’s Martin Crutsinger was still “clinging to recession” on Thursday in his report on unemployment claims:

Many economists believe that a prolonged housing slump and severe credit crisis have pushed the economy into a recession. For that reason, they believe job layoffs will rise in coming months as the unemployment rate climbs higher.

Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist for High Frequency Economics, said that even with the improvement this week, claims are now at a level equal to where they were at the start of the last recession in March 2001. He predicted that layoffs would increase further in coming months.

Mr. Shepherdson failed to note that:

• The workforce is 4%-plus bigger now than in March 2001, so current per-capita claims aren’t up to that level.
• Even though there never were two consecutive quarters of GDP contraction (the everyday working definition of “recession”), the alleged start of the “recession,” as “defined” by the “nonpartisan” National Bureau of Economic Research, should have been sometime during the summer of 2000.

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RIP Lynne Harvey, wife of legendary broadcaster Paul Harvey:

She was the first producer to enter the National Radio Hall of Fame and was inducted in 1997.

….. Bruce DuMont, (Radio Hall of Fame) museum founder and president, said Lynne Harvey was “one of the most remarkable behind-the-scenes talents in the history of American broadcasting, both radio and television.”

….. “She was to Paul Harvey what Colonel Parker was to Elvis Presley.”

DuMont called the Harveys’ relationship “probably the greatest love story that I’ve ever experienced.”

Her Hall of Fame bio is here. “The Rest of the Story” was her brainchild.

Husband Paul called her “Angel.” In her industry, she was “The First Lady of Radio.” Her passing should be receiving much more notice than it is.

Part of the May 5, 2008 series – “The Obamas and the TUCC Bulletins,” the point of which is that the claims by Barack and Michelle Obama that they have not been aware of the objectionable beliefs of their pastor and of his theology for the 20 years they have been church members are greatly lacking in credibility.

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Note: Some of these are repeats from previous posts, but are deserving of repetition.

Reginald Williams; January 7, 2007 (pictured here):

Consider the following facts: Wal-Mart workers earn approximately $14,000 per year. Health care options for employees include a $1000 deductible for individuals, and $3,000 deductible for families. In addition, employees must also wait in order to qualify for benefits—six months for full-time employees, and one year for part-time employees. At a salary already under the living wage level, the mistreatment of its workers by this corporation that made in excess of $315 billion in 2005 is appalling.

Wal-Mart’s sales for the year ended January 31, 2006 were $315.7 billion. Its net income after taxes was $11.2 billion — less than 4% of sales.

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Reginald Williams; April 15, 2007 (pictured here):

The inhuman treatment and lack of respect given to Black people is still America’s pastime. America was founded on the dehumanization of Black folks, and it still operates with a vision that does not see Black people as human.

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Jeremiah Wright; August 26, 2007 (pictured here):

“Forty Years Later” not much has changed since that speech on the Washington Mall given by Dr. King. Since 1619, when you look at the ‘big picture,’ you will see that not much has changed either when it comes to the rights of Africans living in this country.

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Reginald Williams; November 18, 2007 (pictured here):

For many Indigenous Native Americans (Indian) people, “Thanksgiving” is a time of mourning, of remembering how a gift of generosity was rewarded by theft of land and seed corn, extermination of many from disease and gun, and near total destruction of many more from forced assimilation. As currently celebrated in this country, “Thanksgiving” is a bitter reminder of 500 years of betrayal returned for friendship.

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(thought I’d save this one for last)
Rev. Jeremiah Wright; September 25, 2005 (not signed by Wright, but presumptively his writing; pictured here):

From Murder to Concentration Camp!

The month of September has been an incredible month for African Americans in the United States of AmeriKKKa. Citizens of this country and people all over this world have watched incredulously as the lack of governmental response has murdered thousands of African Americans who are poor and who had no way out of the watery grave that could have been avoided.

Mercenaries from Israel were brought in to protect white property. Black Water (the guys who ran Abu Ghraib Prisons) were brought in as mercenaries to protect white property. White property was protected and black lives were lost!

The evacuees from New Orleans, from Mississippi and from Alabama have been spread out all over the country. Those here in Tinley Park have run away from murder and ended up in a concentration camp!

According to Wikipedia, the total death toll from Katrina in all states affected was 1,836. According to the City of New Orleans, less than 50% of the hurricane deaths in that city were African-American — a disproportionately lower percentage of the population.

Part of the May 5, 2008 series – “The Obamas and the TUCC Bulletins”

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Note: Some of these are repeats from previous posts, but are deserving of repetition.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright; July 17, 2005 (pictured here; opens in new window):

While you were looking the other way, Mr. Joseph C. Wilson IV, a good Republican, a man loyal to the “party,” and a man of integrity wrote an Op-Ed article for The New York Times. In his article he disputed George Bush’s administration’s claims about Sadaam Hussein’s nuclear program.

….. Because Mr. Wilson dared to tell the truth, the White House sought retribution! The Bush Administration publicly identified his wife as a CIA operative. The Bush Administration “leaked” information to identify his wife, Valerie Plane, as “an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. In other words, they “outed” her!

Wright called for George Bush’s impeachment in that same essay.

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Rev. Jeremiah Wright; August 7, 2005 (pictured here):

….. this weekend marked the 60th anniversary of the most heinous act of terrorism since chattel slavery – the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki …..

….. most Americans have no idea as to what we did in the terrorist act committed against the Japanese people.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were also invoked in Wright’s infamous post-9/11 “chickens come home to roost” video.

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Rev. Jeremiah Wright; November 6, 2005 (pictured here):

“Both Washington and Jefferson were owners of Africans and fathered babies by African women.”

“(Thomas Jefferson is) the man who was a pedophile and raped the 15 year-old African girl, Sally Hemmings.”

As covered in this previous post, the claims are dubious at best, scurrilous at worst. This previous post notes that Wright made his Jefferson-pedophilia claim at funeral service several weeks ago.

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Reginald Williams; November 20, 2005 — on that year’s riots in France (pictured here):

Young persons who are sick and tired of the government’s and society’s exclusive, supremacist, racist attitude toward them, are rising up and making themselves heard. It is easy to decry the riots as just troublemakers who are off on a tangent. However, when one reviews the history of how Arabs and other immigrants from North Africa have been treated since World War II, one may begin to understand the unrest a bit better.

….. It is a common occurrence for police to demand that they lower their eyes, as in the Jim Crow South, as if dark-skinned people are not even worthy to look in the eyes of white policemen who are supposed to serve and protect.

This shows us that racism is not just an American entity, but a worldwide occurrence. In fact, if names were switched, it could very well be America rather than France.

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Reginald Williams; December 17, 2006 (pictured here):

The truth of the matter is that Pat Buchanan’s ancestors did not build this country; they stole this country. It was the enslaved Africans, and Native Americans who built this country from sea to sea on their backs without the benefit of a paycheck. Moreover, they were immigrants themselves who were welcomed in, and deceived those who hosted them.

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History and economics lessons, TUCC-style, continue in the next post.

Marc Dann MUST resign. If he won’t, he must be removed. After this (HT Weapons of Mass Discussion), it’s hard to imagine how he can have any defenders besides himself. A strong argument can be made that, while less “exciting,” what Dann has done is worse than what led Eliot Spitzer to resign.

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Related — A certain person who I believe knows better tried to put one over on me by claiming that Ohio’s Old Media drove the Dann story, and ridiculed the notion that bloggers were holding their feet to the fire.

What I now recall is that a November Dann affair item was first put forth by Ohio right-side blogger Matt Naugle (who has since moved to another site). It was roundly ridiculed by left-side bloggers such as this one (see “2008 Outlook” at link), and a few on the right, who collectively owe him an apology.

Unless I’m missing something Ohio’s Old Media was nowhere to be found, but got working after that, knowing full well that right-side and left-side bloggers were also on it.

If that chronology is correct, though it’s not a done deal at this moment, Ohio’s state and national left side owe Naugle a big thank-you for helping them take out the trash. That would include Hillary Clinton superdelegate Ted Strickland and Hillary Must-Win-Ohio Clinton, for whom Dann’s continued presence is a ginormous liability.

Ohio’s Old Media would, in my opinion, have been proactively looking for these kinds of things from the get-go if the GOP controlled the Statehouse. In fact, that’s not an opinion; that’s an assertion based on watching them do their jobs, occasionally overzealously and often selectively, during the previous 16 years. From here, it seems like they largely stopped doing their jobs, unless pushed, in early January 2007. Thank goodness for those, like Naugle, who have pushed them.

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Sit down, because you otherwise might faint when I say this: Give CNN (a little) credit for showing a picture from a May Day “comprehensive immigration reform” (i.e., open-borders) rally showing both an American and Mexican flag.

Though many reports, including this one, noted the presence of both countries’ flags at these rallies (earlier reports, which indicated that they were about 50-50, ended up being revised to “mostly American flags” — hmmm), the LA Times managed to shoot a picture with nothing but Old Glories as far the eye could see. Media manipulation is visual, too.

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In my Thursday post on the steep decline in newspaper circulations, I neglected to note that the Denver Post was the only paper in the March 31, 2005 Top 25 that was no longer there in March 31, 2008 (this year’s new addition is the Sacramento Bee).

The Post’s circulation has dropped at least 16% in the past three years. Story cover-ups like this one noted at Slapstick Politics (”‘Brown Pride’ Vandals Hit Denver Suburb, Local MSM Silent”; HT Michelle Malkin) explain why.

If the locals can’t rely on a paper to report the important fundamental facts about an apparent ethnicity-driven incident of major vandalism, why should they buy it, or subscribe to it?

Old Media business reporters have a definitionally-incorrect habit of labeling single industries or economic sectors as being “in recession,” when the term, as defined here, can only describe national economies or the world economy. Two examples of this are New York Times reporter David Leonhardt’s description of manufacturing as being in recession in February 2007 (laughably incorrect, in any event), and the Times’s employment of the term “housing recession” 25 times since October 2006, as seen in this Times search (with the phrase in quotes).

But if I wanted to be consistent with this routine form of journalistic malpractice, I would characterize the newspaper business — at least in terms of the top 25 in the industry’s food chain — not as being in recession, but instead as going through a deep, dark, painful, protracted depression.

A look at circulation changes in the past three years shows just how bad it’s been for most of them:

(Sources: March 31, 2008 - Editor & Publisher [opens in new window; backup BizzyBlog post containing the same data for when E&P post goes away is here]; March 31, 2005 - Burrelle’s [opens in new window].)

Circulation at the top 25 papers in the US is down 7.4% in the past three years. But if you exclude USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily News, and the New York Post, which have collectively increased their daily circulation by a bit less than 1%, you see that the other 21 have declined 12.2% during that time — a decay rate of over 4.4% per year.

Though I didn’t work up a table for Sunday circulations, Editor & Publisher reported earlier this week that Sunday circ was down 4.5% in the past year, including a whopping 9.26%, or over 150,000 copies, at the New York Times.

The situation is probably even worse than the numbers indicate. That’s because late last year, the industry’s Audit Board of Circulations made changes that enabled the papers to include items that had previously been excluded from circ figures. Among the changes:

…. newspapers will be considered paid by ABC regardless of the price for which the copy was sold.

….. there will no longer have to be payment for third-party copies or Newspapers in Education for the circulation to count.

….. Hotel and employee copies, currently under other-paid, will be reclassified under a new paid-circulation category.

Since the Audit Board’s announcement of the changes said that “The specifics will take approximately three years to work out,” it’s not clear how much circ inflation is included in the just-released figures.

Though its print circulation has declined slightly, it needs to be remembered that the Wall Street Journal has more than made up for that small decline with hundreds of thousands of paid, online-only subscribers.

It should not be lost on the industry that the papers with the best reputations for playing the news straight, fair, and balanced are the ones that are holding their own. But if history is any guide, that obvious lesson will continue to be ignored.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

These are being held for future reference they will shortly disappear from Editor & Publisher’s publicly available web site info.

Current year weekday figures support this post (”Newspaper Industry Circ: Down Doobie-Doo Down, Down — with Four Exceptions”).

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DAILY

Total Paid Daily Circulation, Average Monday-Friday

Newspaper Name — As of 03/31/08 — As of 03/31/07 — % Change

USA TODAY: 2,284,219 — 2,278,022 — 0.27%
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: 2,069,463 — 2,062,312 — 0.35%
THE NEW YORK TIMES: 1,077,256 — 1,120,420 - (-3.85%)
LOS ANGELES TIMES: 773,884 — 815,723 — (-5.13%)
DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK: 703,137 — 718,173 — (-2.09%)

NEW YORK POST: 702,488 — 724,748 — (-3.07%)
THE WASHINGTON POST: 673,180 — 698,116 — (-3.57%)
CHICAGO TRIBUNE: 541,663 — 566,827 — (-4.44%)
HOUSTON CHRONICLE: 494,131 — 503,114 — (-1.79%)
THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC: 413,332 — 433,731 — (-4.70%)

NEWSDAY: 379,613 — 398,231 — (-4.68%)
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: 370,345 — 386,564 — (-4.20%)
THE DALLAS MORNING MORNING NEWS: 368,313 — 411,920 — (-10.59%)
BOSTON GLOBE: 350,605 — 382,503 — (-8.34%)
STAR-LEDGER, NEWARK, N.J.: 345,130 — 372,629 — (-7.38%)

THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: 334,150 — 352,193 — (-5.12%)
CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER: 330,280 — 344,705 — (-4.18%)
THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: 326,907 — 357,399 — (-8.53%)
STAR TRIBUNE, MINNEAPOLIS: 321,984 — 345,252 — (-6.74%)
ST. PETERSBURG (FLA.) TIMES: 316,007 — 322,771 — (-2.10%)

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: 312,274 — N/A — N/A
DETROIT FREE PRESS: 308,944 — 330,242 — (-6.45%)
THE OREGONIAN: 304,399 — 319,624 — (-4.76%)
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE: 288,669 — 296,331 — (-2.59%)
THE SACRAMENTO BEE: 268,755 — 279,032 — (-3.68%)

SUNDAY

Average Sunday Circulation at Top 25 U.S. Daily Newspapers

Newspaper Name — As of 03/31/08 — As of 03/31/07 — % Change

THE NEW YORK TIMES: 1,476,400 — 1,627,062 — (-9.26%)
LOS ANGELES TIMES: 1,101,981 — 1,173,095 — (-6.06%)
CHICAGO TRIBUNE: 898,703 — 940,621 — (-4.46%)
THE WASHINGTON POST: 890,163 — 930,989 — (-4.39%)
DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK: — 704,157 — 775,544 — (-9.20%)

HOUSTON CHRONICLE: 632,797 — 677,425 — (-6.59%)
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: 630,665 — 672,953 — (-6.28%)
DETROIT FREE PRESS: 606,374 — 639,531 — (-5.18%)
DENVER POST/ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS: 600,026 — 704,169 — (-14.79%)
STAR TRIBUNE, MINNEAPOLIS: 534,063 — 574,385 — (-7.02%)

BOSTON GLOBE: 525,959 — 562,273 — (-6.46%)
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS: 520,215 — 563,079 — (-7.61%)
THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC: 515,523 — 541,757 — (-4.84%)
NEWARK STAR-LEDGER: 500,382 — 570,523 — (-12.29%)
THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: 497,149 — 523,687 — (-5.07%)

NEWSDAY: 441,728 — 464,169 — (-4.83%)
ST. PETERSBURG (FLA.) TIMES: 432,779 — 430,893 — 0.44%
CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER: 428,090 — 442,482 — (-3.25%)
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: 424,603 — 438,006 — (-3.06%)
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: 414,564 — 407,754 — 1.67%

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, TIMES: 409,231 — 423,634 — (-3.40%)
NEW YORK POST: 401,315 — 439,202 — (-8.63%)
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL: 384,539 — 400,317 — (-3.94%)
THE SUN, BALTIMORE: 372,970 — 377,561 — (-1.22%)
THE OREGONIAN: 361,988 — 375,914 — (-3.70%)

You have to wonder if the Associated Press felt the need to find an exceptionally gloomy story to write when it learned that the economy would probably show positive growth in the government’s first-quarter GDP report. That report was released earlier today — and came in at +0.6%.

If so, this article by the AP’s Anne D’Innocenzio (HT to a NewsBusters e-mailer) does the job:

The for-sale listings on the online hub Craigslist come with plaintive notices, like the one from the teenager in Georgia who said her mother lost her job and pleaded, “Please buy anything you can to help out.”

Or the seller in Milwaukee who wrote in one post of needing to pay bills — and put a diamond engagement ring up for bids to do it.

Struggling with mounting debt and rising prices, faced with the toughest economic times since the early 1990s, Americans are selling prized possessions online and at flea markets at alarming rates.

To meet higher gas, food and prescription drug bills, they are selling off grandmother’s dishes and their own belongings. Some of the household purging has been extremely painful — families forced to part with heirlooms.

Besides the engagement ring noted above, D’Innocenzio cited just one other heirloom: a $6 grandmother’s teakettle.

For that matter, the AP writer cited very few “prized possessions,” including:
- “pricey Dooney & Bourke handbags.”
- “Hermes leather jackets and Versace jeans and silk shirts.”

Far be it from me to debate the definition of “prized.”

I am not denying that people occasionally come onto hard times, nor am I denying that most who do deserve our sympathy and, where possible, charitable help. But one person cited in the article got into the difficulties she is in because her live-in boyfriend left her. Another couple is in a tough situation because the husband became disabled. Can these unfortunate events be traced, as D’innocenzio seems to claims, to horrible economic conditions in general?

D’Innocenzio also cites heavy sales of used “recreational vehicles like campers and trailers, cars and trucks, and boats” — items which she acknowledges are likely being unloaded because of how expensive it is to keep some of them fueled. But with gas prices where they are, this would likely be happening even if the economy were booming.

The question that D’Innocenzio does not answer is whether the explosive growth in the market for second-hand goods at sale and auction sites like Craigslist, AuctionPal.com, and others is a product of truly tougher-than-usual times, or instead a positive reflection of the benefits of Internet-driven economic efficiency. After all, about the only ways to sell “stuff” 20 years ago were to hold a yard sale and/or place expensive classified ads, meaning that a lot of “stuff” either never got sold, got sold at fire-sale prices, or was thrown away. People going through a difficult stretch are probably better able to get their hands on needed cash by selling “stuff” when they have to than at any other time in history. I would suggest that this is a good thing, and can, to an extent, soften the blows people take when their financial circumstances sour.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

I’m (still) buried in a longer-term assignment for Pajamas Media, but wanted to come up for air long enough to point to these three Editor & Publisher articles today:

- “Steep Decline at ‘NYT’ While ‘WSJ’ Gains ” — overall dips in circulation during the year ended March 31, 2008 for the top 25 newspapers in the USA were 3.5% for weekdays and 4.5% for Sunday.
- Weekday detail.
- Sunday detail.

Rush today, as he has in the past, called the Drive-by Media (his term) the only industry in which a customer who doesn’t like the product is routinely told there is something wrong with him or her.

Hopefully, I’ll have more to say and show on this in the coming day or two.

The repeated flubs by the candidate I irreverently refer to as “Mr. BOOHOO-OUCH” (Barack O-bomba Overseas Hussein “Obambi” Obama - Objectively Unfit Coddler of Haters) on the effects of the capital gains tax consistently ignore the fact that when it has been lowered, tax revenues have increased. One specific is that the 1997 cut that gave rise to almost three years of very good economic growth caused tax collections to explode, but more importantly, was a huge factor in venture capital increasing by a factor of 7:

In 1995, the first year for which these data are available, just over $8 billion in venture capital was invested. Venture capital is especially critical to a vibrant economy because high-risk/high-return investment permits promising new businesses to blossom, rapidly spreading new technologies and new ideas into the marketplace and across the economy. Such investments, when successful, generate returns to investors that are subject primarily to the tax on capital gains. By 1998, the first full year in which the lower capital gains rates were in effect, venture capital activity reached almost $28 billion, more than a three-fold increase over 1995 levels, and by 1999, it had doubled yet again.

($28 billion x 2 = $56 billion, which is seven times greater than 1995’s $8 billion. — Ed.)

The explosion in venture capital activity cannot be credited entirely to the cut in capital gains tax rates, as the cut fortuitously coincided with technological developments that gave rise to the Internet-based “New Economy.” However, the rapid development and application of these new technologies could not have occurred at such a rapid clip absent the enormous investment flows made possible largely by the reduction in the capital gains tax rate.

Obama either doesn’t get that, or believes it’s less important than an abstract concept of “fairness” — economic growth be damned.

Update: Obama is now saying — “I’m mindful that we’ve got to keep our capital gains tax to a point where we can actually get more revenue.” There’s one way that happens, pal — LOWER it.

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John Stossel, in the Orange County Register (bold is mine):

And are we really experiencing a mortgage-default “crisis”? No. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s 2007 fourth-quarter survey reports that foreclosures came to 2.04 percent of all mortgages. Many of those were speculators seeking flip profits rather than homeowners losing a dream house. During the quarter, 0.83 percent of homes entered the foreclosure process. It may get worse – in March, “foreclosure filings, default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions rose 5 percent,” Reuters reports. But let’s keep things in perspective: Ninety-eight percent of borrowers are not in foreclosure. Only a small percentage of them are even late in payments.

Politicians love a “crisis.” John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama all think that the government should bail out homeowners who can’t pay their mortgages. When they say the government should do this, they mean the taxpayers, including those who are paying their mortgages. They also think the government should regulate the lending and investment industries further.

Why?

Because “crisis” justifies making big government bigger.

“The taxpayers” also including those who are paying rent.

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The presidential candidate I irreverently refer to “JS3M3″ (John Sidney the Mad Maverick McCain III) has not been pleasing the people who are supposed to be his base lately. That would be conservatives, not Old Media.

But he got this right:

The GOP nominee-in-waiting rapped his Democratic rival for opposing his idea to suspend the tax on fuel during the summer. …..

“I noticed again today that Sen. Obama repeated his opposition to giving low-income Americans a tax break, a little bit of relief so they can travel a little further and a little longer, and maybe have a little bit of money left over to enjoy some other things in their lives,” McCain said. “Obviously Sen. Obama does not understand that this would be a nice thing for Americans, and the special interests should not be dictating this policy.”

Most spending on gas is a fixed cost, at least in the short run. The people who would benefit most from a summer bas-tax holiday would be those for whom gas is a higher pecentage of their total spending.

I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner. It echoes a comment I made a few weeks ago (”think of the people who prudently decided to keep renting instead of buying more than they could afford and hoping that price appreciation would bail them out. They should be hacked off too.”) — AngryRenter.com (I’m sorry I can’t remember who to hat-tip) says “No government bailouts” of homeowners and their bankers, and has a petition.
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CEO Economic Update raises a legitimate question about the National Association of Realtors’ most recent existing-sales report and how it seasonally adjusted its data.

I’m not sure where the site’s Michael Donnelly came up with 40 years as the seasonality look-back period. But regardless, I think readers, in addition to getting the seasonally adjusted number (which NAR says is -2.7% for single-family homes; but Donnelly believes may be as low as -12%) could handle hearing what really happened in March, stated thusly:

March’s sales were 19% higher than in February, the fifth-lowest February-March increase in the past 40 years.

It communicates the existence of an increase, and that it wasn’t impressive. How difficult is that?
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The most delicious thing about the Supreme Court decision yesterday on police search and seizure powers is that it was unanimous: “….. when officers have probable cause to think a person has committed a crime in their presence, the Fourth Amendment permits them to make an arrest and to search the suspect in order to safeguard evidence and ensure their own safety.”

Even Ruth Bader Ginsburg said “Duh.”

The New York Times is apparently upset; this search at the Times on “Supreme Court” (in quotes) indicates that it has not yet reported the decision.
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Strange reporting priorities, plus virulent Bush Derangement Syndrome, have a price: From the New York Post today — at the New York Times, “the ax could fall on as many as 30 editorial people in the company’s first-ever mass firing of journalists in its 156-year history.”
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Katie Couric’s CBS Evening News was down to 5,390,000 viewers during the week ending April 14. “….. in fact they are the lowest numbers since Nielsen began tracking the ratings during the 1987-88 season.”
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From Fox News yesterday — “Mexican Embassy: Official Fired After Getting Caught With White House BlackBerries.” The reference is not to fruit.
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Steven Emerson asks (HT LGF): “Do Hamas Columnists Get Paid?” Unfortunately, I believe the cut-to-the-chase question is really “How Much Do Hamas Columnists Get Paid?”
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Must-read of Wednesday (sorry, just catching up): from Dorothy Rabinowitz at The Wall Street Journal — “Obama’s Media Army.”
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Tony Snow has been released from a Washington State hospital, and is apparently starting work at CNN on Monday. Don’t push it too hard, guy.

At the end of 2007, BrandWeek noted reasons for optimism in Hollywood that 2008 might be a banner year at the box office:

With special effects-driven, superhero-laden tent poles on the schedule for summer 2008, could it be the year that breaks $10 billion at the box office?

Could the mix of franchises scattered around the schedule ….. plus another Judd Apatow comedy and a potential Blair Witch from J.J. Abrams—excite the bottom line?

But after beginning the year decently, three consecutive dismal weekends have caused Tinseltown’s comparable year-to-date totals to trail 2007:

Of course, summer hits could save the day. But it seems at least as likely that 2008 will be the sixth consecutive year of disappointment in studio executive suites.

After excellent results in 2001 and 2002 (increases of 9.8% and 9.0%, respectively), each of the past five years — make that just over 5-1/4 — has been awful, especially after adjusting results for inflation and looking at how many tickets have been sold:

Most of this underperformance has taken place while the overall economy has been decent. The US economy as a whole grew 15% in real terms in the five years ending in 2007, while the movie industry’s box office contracted by over 9%:

Additionally, according to the New York Post, DVD sales declined in 2007 for the first time.

In November, Ned Randloph at VideoBusiness.com offered this grim assessment of the industry’s overall situation and its hopes that new technologies like video on demand might bail it out (bolds are mine):

“Our analysis of the business of the Hollywood studios may come as a surprise to investors and even some people within the industry. We believe there is little chance of the negative revenue trend reversing in the coming years,” Smith said. “New technology will not deliver anything like the revenue initially predicted, and as DVD sales continue to decline and the cost of making movies increases, the message is simple: the Hollywood studios must begin a serious attempt to reign (sic) in costs ….. if they are to survive.”

….. the current cost of producing, casting and advertising movies in the present environment simply exceeds the likely returns …..

Randolph didn’t even get to the potential disruption that YouTube and other instant and/or “amateur” movie alternatives could cause.

Cue the blood-curdling horror show scream.

Focusing only on box-office results, as good as a lot of Randolph says is, he did not address an important larger question, which is this: The competition from other forms of entertainment, while it has always been intense, was surely prevalent during the boffo box-office years of 2001 and 2002. So why were they so good, and why have the years since been so bad?

Consider the resources allegedly sane people have poured into the following “antiwar” films, compared with their box office takes:

• Stop-Loss (2008) — $10.7 million (still in theaters, but near end of run; $25 million production budget)
• Rendition (2007) — $9.7 million (production budget not disclosed; high-priced talent included Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, and Alan Arkin).
• In the Valley of Elah (2007) — $6.8 million (production budget not disclosed; high-priced talent included Tommy Lee Jones, Susan Sarandon, and Charlize Theron).
• The Kingdom (2007) — $47.4 million ($70 million production budget; high-priced talent included Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner).
• Lions for Lambs (2007) — $15 million ($35 million production budget; high-priced talent included Robert Redford, Tom Cruise, and Meryl Streep).
• Redacted (2007) - $65 thousand (production budget not disclosed; high-priced director was Brian DePalma).
• Home of the Brave (2006) — $52 thousand (production budget not disclosed; high-priced talent included Samuel L. Jackson and Jessica Biel).

The duds just noted didn’t have to happen, but their failure points to a readily available solution. However, that solution is going to be very difficult for free-spirited actors, actresses, directors, and producers to understand.

Nevertheless, a point needs to be made. So listen up, guys and gals.

For whatever reason, you folks have “star power.” When you’re associated with a movie that has a reasonable chance of success, your presence can mean millions, maybe tens of millions, at the box office. Employees in the film industry’s food chain — the “little guys” you like to say you care about — all benefit.

But when you let your Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS) divert your precious time and attention to films that, in your heart of hearts, you must know won’t succeed, you cause your industry, its employees, and its investors to lose the value of what you might have otherwise provided.

Consider the possibility — no, the likelihood — that your BDS is what is keeping your industry down. If you are as socially responsible as you claim to be, you should get over it, and help your industry get back on its feet.

At some point — perhaps soon — your own careers may depend on it.

Underlying Data Sources for Charts: Box Office Mojo (Total Box Office and Tickets Sold); US Bureau of Labor Statistics (annual average inflation); US Bureau of Economic Analysis (GDP growth); Census Bureau (annual population estimates).

Interest in the presidential election should be driving up ratings for the Big Three networks’ evening news shows, right?

Wrong. Here is how evening news viewership at ABC, NBC, and CBS for the two most recent available weeks compares to the analogous weeks of 2007 (From Media Bistro’s TV Newser: April 7, 2008; March 31, 2008; April 9, 2007; April 2, 2007):

Total viewership continues to slip. The year-over-year downward change is over 1.7 million viewers (850,000 per week). Even though CBS’s Katie Couric lost most of them, ABC and NBC combined were down by almost 500,000 (250,000 per week).

Couric’s loss in the 25-54 demo is especially stunning, given that one of CBS’s goals in hiring her had to be to go after that group. ABC and NBC have picked up miniscule numbers of viewers in this demo, but that’s little cause for celebration. The percentage of the group watching their newscasts during the two-week comparison periods involved rose from 4.0% to 4.05% — a statistically insignificant change.

Of course, tech trends are affecting these shows. But perhaps if their potential audiences felt that they might see fair, balanced and professional presentations if they tuned in, the slides would not be so pronounced, or could perhaps be reversed. Just a helpful thought.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

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Previous Related Posts:
- July 10, 2007 — Big Three Nets’ Evening News Death Watch: Under 20 Million for the First Time Ever
- May 26, 2007 — Not Just Katie: Overall Evening News Plummet Continues
- Jan. 21, 2007 — Evening News Viewership Was Down about 10% in 2006
- July 11, 2006 — Big Three Network Evening News Viewership Has Dropped Like a Rock This Year
- July 12, 2005 — Nightly News Bias Continues, and Why It Won’t Stop Anytime Soon

Note: This column was originally posted at Pajamas Media on Thursday under the title “Airline Mergers and the High Cost of Flying.”

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UPDATE since PJM Column: “Delta president says deal won’t hurt Cincinnati hub, Comair.” The column explains why I don’t think that’s necessarily great news.

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TV coverage of the just-announced merger of Delta and Northwest gives the average viewer the impression that the sky is about to fall on travelers’ pocketbooks.

NewsBusters’ Jeff Poor had this review of how the Big Three networks’ evening news programs covered the news:

All three network newscasts on April 14 reported the ….. (deal) ….. as if it were a conspiracy to bilk air travelers out of more money.

….. ABC (World News Tonight) correspondent Lisa Stark said ….. (that) “Delta operates 1,500 flights a day with hubs in Atlanta, Cincinnati, New York and Salt Lake City. Northwest - some 1,200 flights a day with hubs in Detroit, Minneapolis and Memphis. Put the two together, and passengers could take a hit.”

….. According to “World News,” two of the hub cities - Memphis and Cincinnati - could be de-hubbed after the merger.

….. The other two networks were also critical of the merger deal. “NBC Nightly News” assumed the merger would cause fares to increase because of supply. “CBS Evening News” trotted out a Democratic pro-airline union congressman that opposed the merger.

Living in Greater Cincinnati, I suppose I should be worrying about the coming Armageddon caused by the loss of our precious Delta hub.

You must be kidding.

Here are some examples of what it has been like having an airport where one airline (along with smaller but Delta-beholden Comair) controls over 85% of the traffic.

I obtained the lowest quotes for trips from Greater Cincinnati (CVG) and nearby airports to a few common destinations. All flight quotes obtained assumed departure on April 23 and return on April 25, and included all taxes and fees. Quotes were obtained on or before April 16, in time to take advantage of 7-day advance fares. All flights from Cincinnati were non-stops (that’s what hubs are for, right?). Comparison quotes from other cities were non-stops unless otherwise noted, and I sought out non-Cincinnati non-stop alternatives on other airlines. Flights are on Delta unless otherwise noted. Non-locals should know that Dayton, Columbus, and Indianapolis are about 55, 110, and 110 miles, respectively, from Cincinnati.

Los Angeles (LAX):
- From Cincinnati — $1,059
- From Dayton via Atlanta — $360
- From Columbus via Atlanta — $296.50
- From Indianapolis via Atlanta or Cincinnati(!) — $352
- From Indianapolis via Chicago O’Hare, on United — $301

Dallas (DFW):
- From Cincinnati — $850
- From Dayton via Atlanta — $776
- From Columbus via Atlanta — $424
- From Indianapolis via Atlanta — $424
- From Indianapolis, on American — $382

Washington Reagan National (DCA):
- From Cincinnati — $1,029
- From Dayton — $576
- From Columbus — $606
- From Indianapolis — $310
- From Indianapolis, on US Airways — $314

You can see why, for the past two decades, Greater Cincinnati travelers have been wearing out the roads to other towns, just to get tolerable air fares. All too often, as seen in the Indianapolis to Los Angeles example above, Delta trips originating in other cities go through Cincinnati for their connections!

I estimate that I have flown out of a city other than Cincinnati 80% of the time during the past ten years. I went through one 2-1/2 year stretch involving about 25 trips without ever flying out of Cincinnati, either because my clients wouldn’t put up with paying Cincinnati-level fares, or because I could not see sticking them with such fares.

Cincinnati turned into a “pass-through” airport once Delta became dominant. It became, and has remained, among the 25 or so busiest airports in the country only because so many travelers pass through it to make connecting flights. Meanwhile, we locals, unless we happen to work for one of the few large employers in the area who have special deals with Delta, begin our adventures in the sky elsewhere.

The hub setup has been great for airport employment, but I don’t see how the rest of Greater Cincinnati is better off. In fact, I believe that some companies considering relocation or expansion here have thought better of doing so because of the impossible airfare structure. It has also hurt existing small- and medium-sized businesses struggling to compete against rivals in towns where air fares, thanks to multi-carrier competition, have been sane.

So you’ll have to excuse me if I think that losing a Delta hub would not be the end of the world. In fact, as Dave at NixGuy noted on Tuesday:

The good news is that with an empty CVG, we could attract more discount flights or possibly even a discount hub. Less direct flights, but cheaper.

As usual, newscasts have focused on the short-term pains while ignoring the very real possibilities of long-term gains. After two decades experiencing the “benefits” of one dominant hub carrier, I’ll take my chances on doing without one.

This doesn’t prove or disprove the existence of a recession, but I don’t recall heavy-hitter companies in the not-actual recession of 2000-2001 (a recession requires two consecutive quarters of negative growth; it didn’t happen), or the real recessions of the early 1980s and 1990s, delivering rosy results and outlooks. But that is what came in from IBM, as well as Coke and Intel, which announced quarterly results yesterday. JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo also beat reduced expectations.

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The presidential candidate I refer to as Mr. BOOHOO-OUCH (Barack O-bomba Overseas Hussein “Obambi” Obama - Objectively Unfit Coddler of Haters) is back to wearing a flag lapel (HT and verification at Hot Air). Well, yes and no. Neither Obama nor the presidential candidate I refer to HR4C (Hillary Rodham Cackling Crying Complaining Clinton) was, as far as I can tell, wearing one at last night’s debate mutual meltdown (WSJ: “It didn’t take long during last night’s debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to see who the winner would be: John McCain”). Perhaps there was a “don’t disturb the lefties; no patriotic displays” rule in effect.

Atlanta Journal Constitution columnist Jim Wooten predicted the pin would make a comeback during Obama’s race-relations Jeremiah Wright recovery speech. Wooten was just early on the timing. I guess it took longer for Obama’s slow-on-the-uptake handlers to realize that the Wright-related salvage efforts weren’t working.

Allah at Hot Air’s reminder (link added by me):

Conservatives naturally were blamed for making an issue of this last fall but in fact Obama’s the one who politicized it by investing the pin with such grandiose meaning that he simply had to stop wearing it in good conscience.

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Mark Steyn at the Corner noted a case in Canada where, in the process of punishing McDonald’s for failing to accommodate an employee with a disability, the geniuses on the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal ignored hundreds if not thousands of years of human experience and scientific data.

It found no evidence that there is a “relationship between food contamination and hand-washing.”

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The BBC reports about the world’s biggest polluter:

China has already overtaken the US as the world’s “biggest polluter”, a report to be published next month says.
The research suggests the country’s greenhouse gas emissions have been underestimated, and probably passed those of the US in 2006-2007.

Yours truly noted this situation last June (final item at link; original UK Guardian article is here).

The world’s biggest polluter wants hundreds of billions of dollars from the West (that means the US, for all practical purposes) to help it become less of a polluter.

I would suggest that we have already given it to them in the form of hundreds of billions of dollars in trade surpluses over the years. If it’s that important, the world should be saying “You have the money to do it, so spend it already.” But it won’t.

It’s here. It’s about the Delta-Northwest merger, how I’m not worried about the possibility of losing Delta’s Greater Cincinnati hub, and why I would in fact welcome it.

I will post it at BizzyBlog Saturday morning (link won’t work until then) under the title, “As Delta and NWA Merge: What’s a Hub Got to Do With It?”

RIP, Charlton Heston.

I don’t know how you can overstate the importance of the actor’s larger-than-life status to preserving our Second Amendment rights when they were most seriously challenged in the 1980s and 1990s. The public could hardly see supporters of the right to keep and bear arms as “gun nuts” as long as Heston was the face of the NRA.

Old Media bias clearly follows unfavored folks to their graves.

First, a hearty “bleep you” to David Germain of AP, for putting serial liar Michael Moore into the second paragraph of your Heston obit, adding four later paragraphs about Moore, and even providing a link to his site in the article’s text — as if most of Germain’s readers give a rip about what Moore did in response to Heston’s passing.

Also, this LA Times rundown of Heston’s films seems intent on finding ways to negatively critique either Heston’s performance or the films themselves, even quoting a Time review of “The Ten Commandments” that called Heston “ludicrously miscast.”

Covered in longer form at NewsBusters.org.

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Vermont is facing a $59 million budget deficit. The state’s population is just over 600,000. Per-capita, that would be the equivalent of over $1 billion in Ohio.

Jim Douglas, the state’s sort-of Republican governor, is holding the line on taxes and has proposed reductions in planned spending (other would call them “cuts,” but my bet is that year-over-year spending will still be higher after the reductions).

This editorial in a Brattleboro paper starts out by saying that there are no new sources of revenue available, but then about 2/3 of the way through supports “eliminat(ing) a tax break on capital gains” that would supposedly raise $21 million. It goes on to whine about the governor’s lack of leadership and engagement. From here, I have to wonder what else he’s supposed to do.

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Wal-Mart is making a false claim, according to the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus:

Wal-Mart should discontinue the implied advertising claim that consumers can save $2,500 annually by shopping there, the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus recommended in a statement today.

….. Wal-Mart has since dropped the claim from TV and magazine ads, though it remains on the retailer’s website. A spokeswoman said Wal-Mart has modified the website to make it clearer that people need not necessarily shop at Wal-Mart to get the $2,500 in savings.

I’d say that makes it an understated claim; Wal-Mart’s aggressive efficiency has benefitted everyone. Thanks, Wal-Mart.