Friday, January 15, 2016

What biased journalism looks like


Do you wonder why the Republican Party wanted the Fox Business channel to host last night's debate? From TPM:
A question posed by Fox Business Networks Neil Cavuto at Thursday's main GOP debate had a curious way of glossing over the fact that the 2008 financial crisis came under President George W. Bush.

Referencing a dip in the stock market to start 2015, Cavuto asked Ohio Gov. John Kaish about how he would manage a financial crisis.

"Investors have already lost $1.6 trillion in market value. That makes it the worst start to a new year ever. Many worry things will get even worse, banks and financial stocks are particularly vulnerable," Cavuto said. "If this escalates like it did back when Barack Obama first assumed the presidency, what actions would you take, if the same thing happens all over again just as in this example you are taking over the presidency?"

As University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers pointed out, the stock market has more than doubled since since President Obama came into office.

The above image was posted by Wolfers on Twitter, in case you can't remember as far back as seven years ago. (The light blue area shows the S&P 500 index over the past decade.) Apparently, Neil Cavuto can't.

No, that's unkind. He knew he was lying. Cavuto doesn't impress me in any way, but it would be impossible for him not to know. And he certainly knows that two weeks means nothing in the stock market. Short-term gyrations are not just normal, they're to be expected - especially after such a long bull market.

But Cavuto is a Republican, and Fox Business Network, like Fox News, pushes Republican Party politics all it can - even if it has to lie to do so. Yes, lie. Make no mistake, this was a deliberate attempt to mislead the American people.

But then, that's exactly why the Republican Party picked them to hold the debate, huh?

2 comments:

Jim Harris said...

You'd think people wishing to make money would realize they've been doing better under Democrats. They should forget ideology and go for bucks.

Bill Garthright said...

Yes, you'd think so, wouldn't you?

Of course, billionaires can get a much better return by investing in politicians than by investing in the stock market. But for the rest of us,... we need to compare our results under Obama or Clinton with our results under Bush.