America’s Economic Disconnect

AmericanThinker3From Jim O’Sullivan at American Thinker:

The state of our economy has become a constructed fantasy created largely by mainstream media (MSM) narratives. Media accounts of economic performance over the past four years have ranged from confusing to inaccurate to flagrant happy talk and spin. Rationalization and selective reporting have created economic ‘good’ news and false ‘hopes’ where none existed or should exist. The techniques employed have included consistently biased memes, factual omission, factual commission, and even misdirection. Often such narratives suggest that improvement would occur tomorrow… or next week, or next year. The effect on Americans has been a growing separation between economic reality and the media’s economic illusions.

The ‘measured’ beliefs of many Americans clearly demonstrate that a disconnect does exist. But are the cited causes the only explanations for this distortion? Or is the statistical economic snow just too much and too boring for people to digest? Perhaps Americans lack even a minimal understanding of the somewhat opaque concepts and statistical mechanics of economics. Or is it because current information is not compared and contrasted to previous months and years with regularity to highlight trends and help understanding? Or has a ‘new economic normal’ actually taken hold in the minds of most individuals? These possibilities are contributing factors and can be added to the media causes degrading a realistic understanding of our troubled economy.

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