Media twist good economy into bad news

As Economy Booms, Study Finds ABC, CBS and NBC Distort Reality by Hyping Hardship and Pessimism

A very interesting report from RealityCheck.com (which admittedly has been posted on their web site for a period of time now) is worth keeping in mind as the mainstream media continues to inundate audiences with gloom-and-doom economic news at every opportunity.

• Since Election Day 2004, the U.S. economy has added more than 3 million new jobs.
• The U.S. unemployment rate has dropped from an already healthy 5.5% to an even more healthy 4.6%.
• Even with energy prices gyrating, the Consumer Price Index shows inflation at a modest annual rate of 3.4%, for both 2005 and the first nine months of 2006.
• Since the fall of 2004, the overall size of the U.S. economy (GDP) has increased by more than $1.3 trillion — new wealth that exceeds the total size of the Russian, Saudi Arabian and Hong Kong economies combined.
• An ABC News/Washington Post poll released October 9 found nearly a fourth of Americans (23%) said the economy will be the "single most important" issue for them on Election Day, nearly twice as many as those who said Iraq would be the most important voting issue (12%).
• But the same poll also found pessimism: 53% said the economy was "not so good" or "poor," vs. 47% who said it was "good" or "excellent."
• Why are voters so gloomy when the economic reality is so good? One reason may be the fact that the big broadcast networks have buried the good economic news under an avalanche of bad news stories.
• A recent study from MRC's Business & Media Institute (BMI) proves the point. Looking at a year's worth of economic coverage on the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news (August 1, 2005 to July 31, 2006), the BMI analysts found "more than twice as many stories and briefs focused on negative aspects of the economy (62%) compared to good news (31%)."
• While real world good news was out there to be found, the networks presented bad news instead. As gas prices rose in the spring, the networks went hunting for victims. On the April 24 World News Tonight, ABC's Jake Tapper showcased a woman who claimed she had to pawn wedding gifts to put gas in her husband's truck.
• Good news has barely created a ripple.
• One of the best economic reports of 2006 was a May 25 Commerce Department release showing the economy grew at a robust 5.3% rate in the first quarter. ABC's World News Tonight gave the news just 17 seconds; the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News completely skipped it…

Get The Full Scoop

Go to the Media Reality Check web site.

Media Twist Good Economy Into Bad News
By Rich Noyes

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Our Take

Good grief. Must we listen to the all the sufferers who still have to endure the cheapest gas prices in the world? It’s enough to make me top off the tank in my Hummer.