Associated Press — We’re Doomed
Kurt Brouwer June 23rd, 2008
This is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek post on an AP article that has deservedly received quite a bit of criticism in the blogosphere [emphasis added]:
Media To America: Disaster Seen As Catastrophe Looms (U.S. News - Capital Commerce Blog, June 23, 2008, James Pethokoukis)
“I know you’re just a reporter, but you used to be a person, right?” is a quote from the film Deep Impact and immediately came to mind after I read this article from the Associated Press. (It actually took two people to write it.) The “article” made me weep for my chosen profession. The absolutely disgraceful lead:
Is everything spinning out of control? Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism. Horatio Alger, twist in your grave. The can-do, bootstrap approach embedded in the American psyche is under assault. Eroding it is a dour powerlessness that is chipping away at the country’s sturdy conviction that destiny can be commanded with sheer courage and perseverance.
I dunno, maybe contributing to our low national morale are media that 1) compare a weak economy—although one that has yet to suffer even a single negative quarter—to the disastrous economies of the 1930s and 1970s; 2) forget to mention that the average person buying a home in, say, January 2000, is still sitting on a 66 percent gain; 3) ignore the economy’s sky-high productivity, which helps make it the most competitive in the world; 4) ignore a global economic boom that is pushing up gas prices but also raising hundreds of millions of people out of poverty; and 5) for the heck of it, perpetuate the myth that college is unaffordable…
…America’s “can-do” attitude? We are coming off a record year for initial public offerings. I mean, I could go on and on here. I don’t know anyone who is giving up, other than the AP.
I always enjoy a good rant and Jimmy P. is on it today. Here is a previous post about his ongoing series on the economy:
- Economy , Geopolitics , Money
- Comments(0)
Did you enjoy this article?
