Economy 101
The Free Market Project, a division of the conservative Media Research Center, has released a report criticizing the three broadcast networks for downplaying "strong growth and, instead, emphasized negatives such as corporate layoffs and outsourcing in more than half the stories about jobs or unemployment."
One should not make the mistake of treating the report as objective. The mission of the MRC is to prove "that liberal bias in the media does exist and undermines traditional American values," and "also to neutralize its impact on the American political scene." It's worth checking out – and I should point out that one of its conclusions is that CBS is "the worst network" when it comes to economic reporting – but bear in mind that many of the conclusions that such a report will come to are pretty much settled before the research is even begun.
That does not mean, however, that the issue of how the press covers the economy is not an important one. The economy is vast, fast changing and difficult to characterize simply. It's easy to cherry pick facts to paint a positive or negative picture, something that politicians and partisans do regularly, particularly during an election cycle. News outlets have to try to cut through the rhetoric, which can be particularly difficult to since most journalists lack an understanding of complex economic concepts. And they also have to try to provide context so that news that seems to suggest wider implications – say, job cuts at a particular company – doesn't give media consumers an inaccurate overall picture of the economy.
Blogger Brad Delong, in the syllabus to a course he is teaching this semester at Berkeley called "Covering The Economy," articulated the problem for print journalists this way:
One should not make the mistake of treating the report as objective. The mission of the MRC is to prove "that liberal bias in the media does exist and undermines traditional American values," and "also to neutralize its impact on the American political scene." It's worth checking out – and I should point out that one of its conclusions is that CBS is "the worst network" when it comes to economic reporting – but bear in mind that many of the conclusions that such a report will come to are pretty much settled before the research is even begun.
That does not mean, however, that the issue of how the press covers the economy is not an important one. The economy is vast, fast changing and difficult to characterize simply. It's easy to cherry pick facts to paint a positive or negative picture, something that politicians and partisans do regularly, particularly during an election cycle. News outlets have to try to cut through the rhetoric, which can be particularly difficult to since most journalists lack an understanding of complex economic concepts. And they also have to try to provide context so that news that seems to suggest wider implications – say, job cuts at a particular company – doesn't give media consumers an inaccurate overall picture of the economy.
Blogger Brad Delong, in the syllabus to a course he is teaching this semester at Berkeley called "Covering The Economy," articulated the problem for print journalists this way:
Nobody goes into journalism to write bad stories that mislead their readers and omit or downplay the important news of the events that they are covering. Journalists, especially daily journalists have a very difficult job. They are under ferocious deadline pressure. They are beat reporters--which means that they cannot afford to alienate their sources too far, for they have to go back to them again and again. They are dealing with complicated and subtle issues. And at least half the people they talk to are telling them subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) lies.I talked to CBS News business correspondent Anthony Mason about the challenges of covering the economy.
