[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Economic Reporting Review



Howdy, all--

Bart asked:

> >It spots the errors of fact or interpretative biases/assumptions in
> >these two newspapers' reporting on economic issues.
>
>Do you think it can help me understand why politicians on both sides of
>the aisle and at both ends of Pennsylvania avenue have be squabbling
>over what to do with the Budget Surplus --- and newspapers across the
>land reporting on 99 Billion dollars to distribute --- while apparently
>unnoticed, the US National Debt has increased by an average of $416
>million per day, every single day since 1 October 1998 ??

The ERR archives might have insights on that. This is the kind of 
question that Dean Baker considers--the construction of economic data 
and its reportage. I can't do anything other than recommend you look 
for yourself.

As for understanding the motives of politicians, the politicians to 
whom you refer are, by and large, multimillionaires. In my experience 
their motives aren't that much more confusing or mysterious than that 
of Edna's guinea fowl. That is: pecking order, and alpha male 
dominance. Only far less democratic than bird society. As for 
economists, most of the ones I've known have been long on theory and 
short on practical experience...and always eager to assert that they 
have no political motives for the way they construct their data.

ERR's sponsoring organizations might be of help to you in your confusion;
The Preamble Center is a good place to go for working-people-based 
economic analysis, if you're interested in independent perspectives 
on the topic:

http://www.preamble.org


FAIR, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, since 1986 has worked to 
reveal how media corporations function in both their business 
dealings and reportage:

http://www.fair.org


Another good source of independent information analysis includes PR 
Watch, sponsored by the Center for Media and Democracy:

http://www.prwatch.org

PR Watch does a good job of indicating which monied forces are 
shaping public discourse in what ways. Today's hype is frequently 
tomorrow's headline.

I've also found Project Censored very helpful. Each year, this 
project chooses a "top ten" list of news stories that mainstream 
media ignored (though smaller, independent media often have 
investigated and reported):

http://www.sonoma.edu/ProjectCensored/


There is also Corporate Watch:

http://www.corporatewatch.org

This quote is on their home page: "The Earth is not dying, it is 
being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses." 
--Utah Philips

Bart, pardon my bluntness, but based on your last three SANET 
postings, you come across as convinced that the world sucks 
pennywhistles and the US is going to Hades in a handbag. To me, that 
seems more of a perspective than anything that information sources 
can change. I personally see a lot of cause for joy, hope, and 
excitement in a time of amazing growth and chaos. For chaos, as the 
mathematicians and physicists have discovered, is merely a higher 
order of order, waiting to unfold.

The fact that organizations like those above manage to exist and do 
wonderful work, at a time when so many people are cynical, 
curmudgeonly, and re-adhering themselves to the security of 
absolutist viewpoints to avoid coping with exciting change, strikes 
me as something of the caliber of Divine Intervention. Or anyway a 
message. But then my personal deities are Evolutionary: big on growth 
and change, and not much interested in stagnation. And none of them 
have much invested in the status quo of the past 50 years. They're in 
this for the much longer haul.


peace
misha

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michele Gale-Sinex
Communications manager
Center for Integrated Ag Systems, UW-Madison
http://www.wisc.edu
UW voice mail:		608-262-8018
Home office:		415-504-6474 (504-MISH)
Home office fax:		Same as above, phone first for enabling
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I prefer a rude vigor to a polished banality.  --Utah Philips

To Unsubscribe:  Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg".  If you receive the digest format, use the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".

All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail