Media's Volatile Coverage of Stock Market: 'Armageddon' or 'The Sky's
As the stock market went up and down over the past few weeks, media coverage also bounced from end-of-the-world rhetoric to rational analysis.CNBC’s Jim Cramer went on an impassioned rant August 6 calling for the Fed to reduce interest rates.“Bernanke needs to open the discount window. That is how bad things are out there … in the fixed income markets we have Armageddon,” said Cramer on “Stop…
WSJ Op-Ed's Look at Old Media Business Bias: Very Good Points, But Inc
At OpinionJournal.com on Thursday ("Fair but Unbalanced -- How the media promote false pessimism about the economy"), Brian Wesbury, who has written several times on the disconnect between the strong economy and the public's perception of it (previous references here, here, here, here, and here), had another generally stellar column about what is nonetheless a relatively small piece of the…
Econ 101, Hey! High Schoolers Do Pretty Well on Biz-Econ Assessment
Headline and sub-headline in today's OpinionJournal.com: The Kids Are All Right Economic literacy test: High school seniors beat Congress. Excerpts (bold is mine): Since its founding in 1969, the NAEP has become something of an annual exercise in American educational masochism. Last year, only 54% of students met NAEP's "basic" standard--the equivalent of a passing grade--on the science test.…
Day 1 after Jim Cramer’s Friday ‘Armageddon' Call: Markets Up, Bon
The lesson from this post isn't bias as much as it is making sure not to get taken in by Old Media overreactions. Jim Cramer of CNBC's "Mad Money" went mad on Friday, declaring Armageddon in this video rant on Friday (watch the whole thing to see just how out-of-control he was; his declaration is at 1:40 in the vid -- "in the fixed-income markets, we have Armageddon."). The first trading day…
Can't Make This Up: 'Left-Leaning' Bloggers Trying to Unionize
This is NOT from The Onion. It's from the Associated Press via USA Today ("Bloggers consider forming labor union"):CHICAGO — Do bloggers need their own Norma Rae?In a move that might make some people scratch their heads, a loosely formed coalition of left-leaning bloggers are trying to band together to form a labor union they hope will help them receive health insurance, conduct collective…
Abnormally Cold Temperatures in Texas Threaten Cotton Crop
If summer heat and drought were jeopardizing crops in the Midwest, would a climate change obsessed media be having a field day (pun intended) reporting the news whilst connecting it to manmade global warming? 24 hours a day, seven days a week, right? CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC would likely have correspondents in the cornfields giving daily updates about the gravity of the situation. Yet, further…
Top Two Biased Reports of the Week - Economy and Business Division
Runner Up
One of the Associated Press's earliest articles following Friday morning's release of the government's Employment Report, which showed July's unemployment ticking up 0.1% to 4.6% and new jobs increasing by 92,000, had this outrageous paragraph (backup link is here in case the article is revised or removed; bolds are mine):
Construction companies slashed 12,000 jobs in July.…
