TV biz journalists talking too much about recession

Amy Menefee, managing editor of The Business & Media Institute, writes Wednesday that although the Federal Reserve is predicting an economic slowdown, but not a recession, for 2008, business journalists on television can’t seem to keep themselves away from the R word.

Menefee wrote, “Though TV news is famous for covering the same stories as the Times, network broadcasts have instead harped on recession, mentioning it in 29 stories in the last month – almost once per day.

“The morning of November 27, CBS’s ‘Early Show’ featured a graphic onscreen blaring ‘Recession Fears,’ and CNN’s ‘American Morning’ team asked viewers, ‘Will we be in a recession sometime next year?’ Unsurprisingly, 85 percent of respondents said yes.

“CNN’s senior business correspondent Ali Velshi repeated a sentiment he has voiced before: recession may not depend on economic fact. At least that time he included the fact side of the equation.

“‘A recession really is a downturn in economic growth. It doesn’t mean things are tight, doesn’t mean things are tough. It actually means economic growth is going the wrong direction,’ Velshi explained. ‘We haven’t seen that yet, but the other people say a recession is when you feel like there’s a recession and you stop spending and then you cause a recession. So I’d be very interested in seeing what folks say about that.'”

Read more here.