Media bigotry: dishonest reporting and the economy

Media bigotry: dishonest reporting and the economy: "Even if the stimulus plan has not in fact stimulated the economy, the national media have been very stimulated by it. Their sudden rosy economic coverage reminds us of 1993.Then as now, a Democrat swept into power, and after months of bad-mouthing the economy, the press turned suddenly upbeat and linked any good news to the nation's new CEO. The 180-degree shift in coverage after Bill Clinton's election reeked of political bias, especially since 89 percent of Washington reporters voted for him (more than double the public share).

A survey by the independent Center for Media and Public Affairs found that stories painting the economic outlook darkly plummeted to 14 percent in November 1992 from 90 percent of the total surveyed in October 1992. Overall negative reporting on the economy shrank to 34 percent in December after hitting a two-year peak of 96 percent before the election.

During the election, the national media harped on the Bush recession even though it had ended a year earlier. And they parroted the Clinton-Gore line that Republicans had driven the economy 'into a ditch' and given the nation 'the worst economic performance since the Great Depression' (sound familiar?), though it was in fact one of the mildest downturns on record."