So, I’ve been thinking a lot about all of the negative reports in the media, which continually tell us that we’re in the midst of a recession and that all is doom and gloom. My thinking led me to wonder whether it is actually possible to cause an economic downturn based upon nothing more than mass media pessimism that is intended to sway voters into the open arms of the Democrats in the upcoming elections.
Fox News and American Thinker published some interesting stories regarding the media’s apparently biased coverage of the economy. People, I believe, can many times be motivated more by the sentiments of a reporter or a politician than by the actual data being reported. So that I’m not accused of only getting my information from conservative media, I will admit for the first time that I listen to NPR (somebody get Thomas an oxygen mask) and I hear the negative economic coverage quite often.
Anyway, the GDP grew during the first quarter of this year, but the media coverage calls it a “pathetic” growth or a “snail-paced” growth or some other descriptive term. In my mind, growth is growth and, as such, it should be reported without negative descriptors. Sure, the economy has gone through some pretty rough stuff lately, including the home mortgage mess and rising fuel and food costs, but the fact that we keep “chugging” along shows the resiliency and strength of the U.S. economy.
I wonder if the negative economic data that we have been hearing for a very long time now is not part of a larger attempt to influence people’s political perceptions. We know that we are in an election year and we also know that we are not in a recession, so this causes me to wonder who really benefits by the negative reporting? It’s pretty much a fact that most media outlets lean to the left in their coverage.
Also, there is the idea that many people bail out of the markets right before an upswing, which ensures a loss. Fearing continued losses, people start selling on the cheap, which is right where the savvy buyers come in. I wonder if there are not forces at work providing the public with biased information or misinformation in order to buy things on the cheap and profit from the ignorance of the public. My recommendation is to start buying when you hear that the sky is falling (note: this market tip is provided as a courtesy).
I’m no economic expert, but I would wager that there are forces, either financial, political, or some combination of the two, working to make you believe that we are worse off than we really are. Here’s an interesting final thought: Our growth was .6 percent last quarter despite these bad media reports; what might our growth have been if our media had simply reported growth as growth instead of adding negative commentary to its reports?
