Inflation: Only important to journalists when rising

Noel Sheppard of the Business & Media Institute argues that television business journalists only think that inflation is important to their viewers when it’s rising.

Sheppard wrote, “Yet, when positive inflation news was announced just hours later by the new chairman of the Federal Reserve, ABC didn’t even bother reporting it on its evening news program. Meanwhile, the other two broadcast networks paid inflation relatively little notice compared to their other stories that night.

“On June 15, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke told Chicago’s Economic Club that higher energy costs haven’t had a big impact on other prices, and there are even signs that such pressures may be waning. The stock market exploded on the announcement with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising by almost 200 points, or 1.83 percent – its best one day showing since April 2005.

“Rather than welcome the news after focusing on the evils of inflation, the networks paid little attention. ABC’s ‘World News Tonight’ didn’t even report Bernanke’s statement about inflation. This was particularly odd as ‘Good Morning America’ just hours a few earlier did a rather lengthy segment on the issue.”

Read more here. It’s a great dissection of the issue, and he has some specific examples to back up his point.