Mainstream Media Recovery Hoax

This article was written by Greg Hunter and originally published at USAWatchdog.com


USA Today’s headline Monday in the “Money” section of the newspaper read “Will fragile U.S. economy shatter?” This story should have come with an apology to readers for reporting a so-called “recovery” for a couple of years now that was, in reality, nothing more than bottom bouncing.  And even though the story talked about “worrying signs” and people taking jobs “for half the pay,” the writers still would not let go of the “recovery” theme.  Monday’s story said, “When the job market began to crack in April, most economists said they weren’t worried about the recovery. They’re worried now.  As the recovery slows, optimism is giving way to caution, with undercurrents of something darker.” (Click here for the complete USA Today story reprinted from The Tennessean.) Really, it all turned to crap in just three months?
In April, USA Today reported, “As the recovery finally puts down what appear to be stronger roots, it faces one big force (pent up demand) that could strengthen and reinforce it — and an even bigger one (spending cuts and tax increases at the beginning of next year) that threatens to derail it.” (Click here for the complete USA Today story.) What kind of whack-a-doodle reporting is this?  The recovery was finally putting down “stronger roots,” and three months later, the economy is “fragile” and might “shatter”?  How about it’s been bad all along, and the reporting is mostly a cheerleading job that gives people a false picture of what is really happening.
Any cub reporter could have come up with sources that countered the “recovery” story.  I have done this many times on USAWatchdog.com in just the last few months.  (For example, here, here, here and here)  It’s not just the USA Today newspaper (which I am a daily subscriber); it’s the entire mainstream media (MSM) that spins the economic numbers.  The reporting should have been trying to ascertain if the so-called “recovery” was indeed real.  Instead, I think the MSM pushes a rosy “recovery” story just to make us think things were getting better, and that it was safe to go out and spend money.  The MSM was doing its part to help the economy, which is NOT its job.   I guess repeatedly pushing a “recovery” story, even if the facts do not support it, is good for business and advertising.  This makes me sick.
I really feel today’s MSM thinks it is wrong to question the government.  It reports government numbers without a peep about accounting gimmicks that make the data look better than reality.  For example, “official” unemployment is 8.2%, but if it were computed the way Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) did it in 1994 and earlier, the rate would be more nearly 23%.  (See Shadowstats.com). Heck, if you just reported the most severe BLS numbers, we’d still have nearly 15% unemployed and underemployed Americans.  Where’s the recovery?  Oh, that’s right, it’s a “jobless recovery.”
How many times have we heard that housing was “at the bottom” in the last few years?  In a recent interview with Yale Professor Robert Shiller (Case-Shiller Home Price Index), he told me we were in “the 4^th inning” of the crisis.  This has been going on for 5 years and, apparently, Dr. Shiller thinks we have a long way to go before it’s over.  He’s one of the first experts to predict the housing meltdown in the first place!  (Click here to see the complete Shiller interview.)
What about the Libor rate rigging scandal?  Libor (London Inter-Bank Offered Rate) is a key interest rate where up to $800 trillion of transactions are based globally.  This is huge!  The MSM appears to be giving this a great big yawn?  Best-selling author and investment banker James Rickards says, “This is the greatest fraud and greatest potential liability in history.” Rickards thinks rate rigging banks could be on the hook for “$2.5 trillion,” and “The potential damages could destroy the banking system.” (Click here to hear more from this Wall Street insider.) You’d think this might be, at least, as important as the Colorado “Batman” massacre.  It only could affect–everyone, if Libor lawsuits caused a world-wide banking meltdown.
The data seems to be getting worse even with the government spin.  Now, the Federal Reserve is strongly hinting at more stimulus (money printing).  Last week, Fed Chief Ben Bernanke was publicly wondering if there is, “a sustained recovery going on in the labor market, or are we stuck in the mud?” I’ll go with the same thing the facts and honest reporting should have been saying all along, “stuck in the mud.” The economy is in real trouble, but you wouldn’t have known it from what you read or heard in the MSM.  It’s all been a mainstream media recovery hoax.  As a journalist, I think that’s the biggest fraud of all.