CNN Bullshit: “Some other experts” think the job market is strong? Oh really!?
I was reading an article on CNN.com saying that in March we lost 80,000 jobs (according to the Labor Department) when I came across the following text right in the middle of the story:
But some other experts said that while job losses are climbing, the job market is still relatively strong by historic standards, although even they expressed concerns about growing weakness.
Note that this was placed directly after the following:
“The job market is a lagging indicator,” said Arpitha Bykere, economic analyst at RGE Monitor.com. “We can expect the picture to get gloomier. We won’t see a positive picture any time soon, even if the economy recovers.”
Notice how CNN actually quoted someone? As in, a real person—with a name attached. Then they followed it up with “some other experts”. Otherwise known in mass media circles as bullshit.
You know CNN, “some other experts” think you’ve sunk to a whole new low of propaganda. Even if your intentions are good (trying to prevent market panic perhaps?) your methods are unacceptable and inappropriate. If there’s cause for panic there’s no reason not to tell it like it is! Yelling “fire!” in a movie theatre can save lives!
Note: I’ve saved the page text in case CNN decides to do some stealth post-publish editing.
2 Responses to 'CNN Bullshit: “Some other experts” think the job market is strong? Oh really!?'
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on April 4th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Actually that kind of journalistic weasling is something CNN has been doing for years and its there poor ass excuse for trying to appear “balanced”. You’re analysis is completely backwards. That pathetic little blurb is nothing more than a straw man. If they really wanted to present the other point of view they would not have had to try very hard.
Unemployment is definitely rising, but it is still on par with the boom times of the ’90’s. *. Also, personal income has never been higher than it is right now and while inflation has been increasing it has generally been held tightly in check. Now I have no doubt that a downturn is coming, I think panicking over the job market is foolish. The real concern MUST be the value of the dollar. A weak currency is what real economic disasters are made of and that is easily the most troubling thing on the economic radar.
on April 4th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Technically that little blurb isn’t a straw man. A straw man is a classical logical fallacy. In order for it to be a straw man CNN would have had to present it as false representation of “the other view” and then knock it down. It doesn’t really fit this article (though it sure fits many others).
I’m not saying we should panic over the job market. You’re taking it the wrong way. I was just giving an example of why it isn’t always a good idea to downplay any given news. It isn’t their job (as a big media news outlet) to try to persuade people into action or inaction.
If you’re worried about the value of the dollar you should be REALLY worried. The value of the dollar is pegged to oil more than anything else and the world hit peak oil last year. As the “days of supply” goes down the cost of a barrel of oil goes up. Since oil supplies have nowhere to go but down that means that oil will go up up up very fast. That means that prices on *everything* will go up in tune with it… Which will put further pressure on the economy creating job losses, more foreclosures, lessening consumer spending, etc. It is a vicious circle.
I fear that demand will *always* outstrip supply from here on out and I’m predicting that due to cold snap in Canada we’re going to see $150/barrel oil next week. This will send the markets reeling and the government to move into “full on panic mode”. GWB will unleash the reserves to dampen the fire and the price per barrel will fall back down–but never will we see oil below $100/barrel again.
The long emergency is coming. I’m not sure there’s anything we can do at this point to stop it. There’s no energy equivalent to liquid oil that’s pumped from the ground. Nothing even comes close to the Energy Return on Energy Investment (EROEI) of “easy oil”. Our best bet is to have a WW1-style executive order that forces U.S. manufacturing plants to make alternative energy parts en mass (batteries, generators, solar panels, turbines, thermal storage, etc).
Oil is a fixed resource and an economy based on the consumption of fixed resources will consume itself. Capitalism might not survive an externality like this.
-Riskable
http://riskable.com
“There’s a difference between making a change and making a difference.”