Dean Baker: Media Watchdog

I find it useful to follow Dean Baker's website. He keeps a close eye on the media and how is "mis-reports" economic news. Funny, it always does this in a way to favour the rich to the detriment of the poor and middle classes:

NPR Gets Obama's Position on Taxes Wrong

In its top of the hour news segment on Morning Edition NPR reported on the House health care bill, which would raise taxes on people who earn more than $250,000 a year. It then told listeners that President Obama had promised not to do this.

That is not true. President Obama's pledge was to not raise taxes on people earning less than $250,000 a year.

I'm tempted to act like Captain Renault in Casablanca and say that "I'm shocked, shocked to find that the media owned by the rich distorts news in favour of the rich!"

The funny thing is that most people think of NPR as "the People's radio". Well... I think that needs to be rethought.

Here's another example of Baker finding odd behaviour in the mainstream media:

Been Down So Long That It Looks Like Up to Me

USA Today headlined a piece on new numbers on manufacturing: "reports on factory sector suggest economy is improving." Since the Fed had just reported that manufacturing output had fallen another 0.6 percent in June, the basis for the good news touted in the headline was not obvious.

It turns out that the New York Fed's Empire State General Business Conditions Survey rose to minus 0.55 in July from minus 9.41 in June. Of course a reading of minus 0.55 is better than a reading of minus 9.41, but this reading is still negative. The index reports the number of businesses who say that conditions are improving minus the number who say that conditions are deteriorating.

The negative reading for July means that more businesses still see the economy as getting worse than see it as getting better, even if they see it as deteriorating at a slower rate. That's a step in the right direction, but things are still heading down.

The fact that Dean Baker can find examples like this month after month means it can't be simply ignorance or sloth on the part of the media. Instead, it is more likely that they are dancing to the tune that their masters call out. In this case, the elite want everybody to relax and pretend that the crisis is over so that they can get back to making money hand over fist.