Tom Blumer, writing on the NewsBusters site, notes that the news from Washington earlier this week that the budget deficit was shrinking elicited scant coverage in the business news media.
Blumer wrote, “While there is some coverage of the budget news — this Yahoo! search at about 6:30 a.m. this morning on ‘federal deficit’ (without quotes) has about 20 citations in the first 70 listings going back to the time of the yesterday’s Treasury release — there is no disputing its relatively muted treatment. The online versions of the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today do not have links to the news on their home pages, or even on their business section home pages (USAT does have an ‘On Deadline’ blog entry). The Times has a fairly long article (may require registration) comparing the current expansion, which started in 2003 to the early years of the Clinton economic expansion, but does not bring out yesterday’s news about the shrinking deficit.
“ABCnews.com? Nope (not on home page or at Money & Business). MSNBC? Get real (‘New evidence bolsters teen driver training’ is apparently a more important home-page business story listing; there is no mention of the Treasury release on MSNBC’s business page). CBSnews.com? Surely you jest (not on home page or business page). Fox? Sorry (not on Main, Business, or “U.S.” home pages).”
Read more here.
