Every year when the Christmas season of shopping begins, I listen for the obligatory news story of how things just aren't going well this year. I always wonder how the 90's could ever have been considered a boom time, after all, every year during the biggest buying time... the news was always... gee we aren't selling enough this year.

Yesterday I commented to my husband about a news story I had heard on the radio earlier in the day.

The big news was -- The Christmas shopping season had started out with a big bang - Walmart and JCPenney were doing gangbuster business. BUT Nordstroms didn't do very well. (My comment... didn't do as well as what? As well as they were expecting? as well as Walmart and Penneys? as well as last year at Christmas? as well as last months sales? They don't bother to put any of this "bad" news in context - this is the balance part - you must have bad news if you are going to present good news... even if you don't give us the whole story. The real point is - they can't just say that spending is up this Christmas season - no they have to tell us that even though spending is up not everyone is doing well)

The topic arose because of another news story we both heard on the radio last night... Spending in this Christmas season is way up... Americans aren't saving enough, they're going into debt... this is bad! (My comment - What do they want? they complain about too little spending, then they complain about too much spending. then they even go so far as to say - the children of the people going into debt now will be paying off these bills... more than a little bit ridiculous - this isn't the national debt - this is individual debt)

Well, I'm not the only one who has noticed. I first saw this in the printed version of the WSJ this morning and luckily it's on the opinion journal site too! Brian Wesbury noticed and I hope his op-ed gets lots of readers...

It is amazing. Everything is negative. When bond yields rise, it is considered bad for the housing market and the consumer. But if bond yields fall and the yield curve narrows toward inversion, that is bad too, because an inverted yield curve could signal a recession.

If housing data weaken, as they did on Monday when existing home sales fell, well that is a sign of a bursting housing bubble. If housing data strengthen, as they did on Tuesday when new home sales rose, that is negative because the Fed may raise rates further. If foreigners buy our bonds, we are not saving for ourselves. If foreigners do not buy our bonds, interest rates could rise. If wages go up, inflation is coming. If wages go down, the economy is in trouble.

Yes, the MSM seem to keep getting worse. There is nothing to be reported unless it's bad news. It's almost as if they think reporting good news - in and of itself is a Cardinal Sin.

And they wonder why their circulation and viewing numbers are dropping so quickly. After a while - people get tired of continual bad news. And after Crying Wolf enough times - who is going to listen if the MSM really does have a point about something?

Posted by: Teresa in Money, Money at 07:04 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 581 words, total size 3 kb.

1 I agree with you. But I don't think they'll understand the real issue and keep trying other things to increase readership.

Posted by: VW Bug at December 02, 2005 02:40 PM (BAHyt)

2 I have been noticing the "failure to recognize the positive" trend for a while! It really irritates me -- what do the news spinners want? Rampant depression? What good is that?!?!

Posted by: Richmond at December 02, 2005 04:43 PM (e8QFP)

3 This back and forth stuff gets annoying as heck. I read the 'headlines' from different news agencys during the day, and dadgum if they don't yo-yo constantly.

One hour it's the best Black Friday ever, the next we're doomed. The next Monday, all the e-tailers report record ordering, but come the next hour and we're doomed again.

It goes back and forth ALL the time. Facts? WHAT FACTS? It's enough to make a sane person stop paying any attention to any news at all...

[/rant]

Sorry to rant on your blog!

Oh, and I hate activating credit cards too, but I'll keep that rant to myself... LOL!

Posted by: pam at December 03, 2005 04:56 AM (l6NIn)

4 LOL - feel free to rant away Pam. It is completely frustating - I was just so surprised to see an op-ed in the WSJ come out with this too. You usually don't see it stated out loud too often!

Posted by: Teresa at December 04, 2005 05:43 AM (FZwDL)

5 If a democrat wins the white house in 2008, the ozone layer could be stripped away by upper atmosphere nuclear detonations before Christmas in 2009 and the MSM will run a story like "Sunblock the hot new Xmas gift: Sales booming!"

Posted by: Graumagus at December 04, 2005 02:26 PM (bfSZU)

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