Have you noticed?
If the markets go up, it's a sign of impending doom. If the markets go down, it's a sign of impending doom. If housing starts are high, we're setting ourselves up for a glut later. If sales are low, it's doom for the builders.
If the job numbers go up, it's a sign of impending doom. If the unemployment numbers go down, it's a sign of impending doom because people are giving up looking for jobs.
A 1/10th percent rise in any index spells doom. A 1/10th percent drop spells doom.
You see anything resembling, oh, a trend in reporting styles?
Aside from them always being able to find SOMEONE to declare we're doomed and it's all about to collapse? (Everything from the economy to the Antarctic ice shelf?) If it's coming from the MSM - they're going to present it as a friggin' catastrophe. There is NO reason for them to report good news. Good news will not get the readers to check back to see how good things might be getting - but reporting something as BAD will get them checking back often.
Old-time radio and movie serials ended on cliffhanger notes. If the hero wasn't in danger - why come back the next week to catch the next episode? We're not seeing the reporting being used to present factual information in a clear context - we're seeing writers making sure they've got a job next week by keeping the viewer/reader numbers up, to justify what they're charging the advertisers.
The news cycle is 24-7 now, with constant CNN-MSN-FOX shows all hungry for the next big story - the story that is sensational as hell (to keep the viewer interested), long-lasting (to milk the suspense) AND moving at a fair rate. (Too fast, and the reporters can't keep up. Too slow, and the viewers get bored with the problem.)
Don't look at the 'news' as information - look at it as entertainment. Adjust your perceptions accordingly.
Any time any article or report says something's messed up - it's likely nowhere near as bad as it's presented. After all - they want you to keep checking back. Often. Because if they don't get the ratings, they don't keep their jobs.
J.
Comments (1)
Yes, it will be all doom'n'gloom over the 'sub-prime' meltdown! $1 Trillion of losses at stake! Danger, Will Robinson!
Uh-huh... I can name a day where we lost $1 Trillion in real estate. Nation didn't even go into negative territory as far as GDP was concerned. Recovered right spritely, in fact.
The day?
9/11.
That is the estimated value of the Twin Towers when they stood.
That wasn't a loss to the 'consumer economy', it was a loss to the commercial infrastructure of the Nation.
Notice the deep depression we are in?
No?
As for GW - we are in an interglacial period. These are marked by sudden shifts in climate, tending towards the quite cold.
Want to fix it and warm the planet up a bit to a nice *stable* temperature?
Remove the Isthmus between North and South America and get a global oceanic current going which would steady things out no end. Tiny ice caps, a bit of florida removal, but the Sahara should turn a pretty green.... tropical climate up to, say, TN, and sub-tropical to MI and then temperate thereafter. Mmmmmm.... warm weather! Give it 10 million years or so to erode away if volcanic activity doesn't keep it built up. But then this planet is *always* changing.
Posted by ajacksonian | January 7, 2008 7:38 AM
Posted on January 7, 2008 07:38