Fun_People Archive
15 Mar
Bad News: More Jobs

Date: Fri, 15 Mar 96 13:00:05 -0800
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: Bad News: More Jobs

From: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting <fair@igc.apc.org>


USA Today's Bad News: More Jobs                      March 15, 1996

Recent economic news prompted another example of the bizarre phenomenon of
business reporters in the mainstream press bemoaning a drop in unemployment.
The reported creation of 705,000 jobs was described in terms that might be
reserved for a flood disaster or a swarm of locusts. "Tough times" was the
caption of a photo in March 11's USA Today--showing a harried looking trader
on the New York Stock Exchange.

And the poor stock market was the subject of two accompanying stories which
described the terrible costs of new jobs: One "market strategist" cited
"worries that the new jobs mean there is strong demand for workers, and that
will spur wage inflation." ("Wage inflation" means, of course, higher
wages.) Investor profits won't rise then because "companies will have to
use their money to pay and keep workers instead of letting it flow to the
bottom line as earnings." That nasty scenario, we're told, is "a recipe for
disaster for the stock and bond markets."

But USA Today doesn't want to leave readers totally depressed at the news
of thousands of newly employed people: Despite the "traumatic jolt" of this
past week, the article counsels us that "no one really knows what's in store
[and] most evidence still points to a tepid economy." Hooray?

If you'd like USA Today's economic news to be more about the effects on Main
Street than Wall Street, you can contact them at:

Letters to the Editor
USA Today
1000 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, Va. 22229

Fax: 703-247-3108
E-mail: editor@usatoday.com
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To subscribe to FAIR's magazine, EXTRA!, call 800-847-3993.

© 1996 Peter Langston