Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Lies, Damned Lies, & the News

A piece heard this morning on N.P.R.'s (All Things Considered:) Morning Edition is illustrative of the left-wing—often misidentified as "liberal"—bias pervasive throughout the American journalistic establishment. In discussing a new Congressional Budget Office (C.B.O.) report on President Obama's proposed increase in the minimum wage, the reporter said that such an increase "would" lift X number of persons out of poverty, but "might" eliminate entirely Y number of jobs. There is a fierce debate between left- & right-wing economists over the efficacy of wage floors, but that is not our purpose here. Likewise, I'm neither vouching for nor condemning the projections of the C.B.O. But notice the N.P.R. man's words: the benefits of a minimum wage increase predicted by Mr. Obama "would" occur; the costs of a minimum wage increase predicted by the president's opponents only "might" occur. Economics is a black art, not a hard & fast science. There are so many variables at play in the real economy that the models & predictions made assuming caeteris paribus are virtually impossible to either confirm or disprove. So, it is most accurate to say that a raise in the minimum wage "might" lift X number of persons out of poverty & "might" eliminate entirely Y number of jobs. To say that the good promised by a minimum wage increase "would" occur while the harm threatened only "might" occur is not reporting the news, it is peddling propaganda; such "reporting" is not trying to inform but instead is trying to influence.

French Business News Roundup
Allegations & denials of dirty politics: Dassault-link.
Foreign investment & the family business: Peugeot-link.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
"Weird Al" Yankovic, "Headline News" from "Weird Al" Yankovic: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: "Headline News" & the trashy news sensations it lampoons are twenty years old. Think about that & weep, you old fogey.

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