Mae Anderson

AP Cites Only 2.7 Percent Black Friday Weekend Rise After Trumpeting 7 Percent Weeks Ago; Still Calls It ‘Strong’
By Tom Blumer | December 24, 2012 | 2:52 PM EST

A post-Black Friday weekend dispatch at the Associated Press on November 26 reported that "The holiday shopping season got off to a strong start on Black Friday, with retail sales up 7 percent over last year, according to one survey. Now stores just have to keep buyers coming back without the promise of door-buster savings."

It turns out that the originally reported number was far too rosy. Nevertheless, in both late Sunday and early Monday reports, AP retail writers Mae Anderson and Anne D'Innocenzio treated the actual result, which came in 60 percent lower, as "strong." Each report contained the following paragraph (bolds are mine throughout this post):

Generally Fair AP Report on Consumer Confidence Drop Tries to Make Excuses in Later Paragraphs
By Tom Blumer | May 30, 2012 | 10:29 AM EDT

In a generally even-handed report on yesterday's drop in consumer confidence as reported by the Conference Board (from a revised 68.7 to 64.9, vs. expectations of a rise to 69.6, according to Bloomberg), the Associated Press's Mae Anderson, with assistance from Christopher Rugaber, engaged in a bit of excuse-making in and downplaying in their later paragraphs.

The AP pegged its water-down to a strong upward move in the yesterday's stock trading, pretending that investors didn't take the confidence report seriously. That's odd, because other press reports attributed those gains to "rising optimism about Greece's prospects to remain in the euro zone, which offset a disappointing reading on U.S. consumer confidence." In other words, the report was considered, but the news out of Greece was better. The relevant later paragraphs from AP's report, one relatively early, and the rest appearing much later, are after the jump (bold is mine):

AP's Lame Excuse for Consumer Confidence Dive: It Missed Post-May 18 Gas Price Drop
By Tom Blumer | June 1, 2011 | 10:52 PM EDT

Warning: The following cop-out explanation by Associated Press Retail Writer Mae Anderson will make many readers' heads hurt. Knowledge that she found an economist willing to support it may cause migraines.

Consumer confidence as reported by The Conference Board fell to 60.8 in May from 66.0 in April -- "unexpectedly," of course, as the headline for Ms. Anderson's article indicates.

But really, it was just a blip and super-duper confidence is just around the corner. Just ask Chris Christopher (yeah, that's his real name):