MSM's Twisted Economic and Iraq War Coverage

I want to share the following which Instapundit posted last week. I make a few comments after it below the star line.

Now Instapundit - - -

READER RICK GIOVANELLI SENDS THIS STORY ON THE ECONOMY from The New York Times and observes, "Don't you wish Vegas or the online markets would let you bet on things like the number of articles linking a weak economy to President Bush compared to the number of articles (approximately zero) linking him to the strong economy of the past 4-5 years?"

You don't bet on certainties. But I'm reminded of a passage from Mark Penn's book on how the media treated the economy in 1992:

I have found over the years that there is often a huge disconnect between belief about the economy and the true economic state of affairs. Until the statistics are actually published, people tend to assess the economy through the eyes of the national media.

In 1992, when Bill Clinton won the presidency based on worries about the economy, the statistics that came out after the election showed that the period leading up to November had actually been a period of record growth. . . .

In his 1996 State of the Union speech, President Clinton said we had the best economy in thirty years -- a statement that sent a flurry of reporters to check actual statistics rather than popular political movements and sweeping, politically motivated statements. The more people looked at the facts, the more they agreed, and six months later, there was near-unanimity that the economy was in good shape.

Had the economy changed? No, what had changed was knowledge about the true facts of the economy. (emphasis JinC)

Hmm. Regardless of the data, we get bad economic "news" when there's a Republican in the White House., and good economic "news" when a Democrat is running for reelection. Perhaps that New York Times headline -- "Echo of First Bush" -- is more accurate than I first thought . . . .

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If you've paid much attention to MSM lately and you're one of those who trust the lib/Dem news organizations, you may be surprised to learn the country isn't in a recession yet.

It's tough for the mostly partisan Dems in MSM to report good economic news when an R occupies the White House.

It's also tough for MSM to report good news from Iraq.

MSM's Iraq war reporting is so bad Lt. Gen. Sanchez, former commander of ground troops there, recently delivered a speech in which he castigated MSM for its flagrantly biased reporting of the war even to the point of say some reporting was costing American lives.

But almost all of MSM ignored what Sanchez said regarding their war reporting.

Whether its the war or the economy, you can count of most MSM news organizations to twist, spin and shill for the Dems. On the other hand, they almost always get the ball scores right.