Four years ago the national consensus was that the economy had gone to hell, with handbasket potential for further destruction and damage.
In the politer words of Pew Research:
"Amid the nation’s financial crisis four years ago, there were virtually no differences in how Republicans, Democrats and independents viewed economic news. About eight-in-ten in each group said the news they were hearing was mostly bad.
Differences in perceptions of economic news emerged after Barack Obama took office. But they never have been as great as they are today. Four times as many Republicans as Democrats say the news they have been hearing about the economy is mostly bad (60% vs. 15%).
As in recent months, the views of independents are roughly equidistant from those of Republicans and Democrats. In the current survey, 36% of independents say they hearing mostly bad economic news, little changed from a month ago (40%)."
Or in other words, the views we hold tend to dictate the news we hear. To be fair, not always. Maybe not during national crises. Last election season, we could at least all agree we were watching the economy coming to a crashing halt. But often: This election season we don't agree even on its status.
'Course, all news people must admit that the media can outright mislead, sometimes blatantly. Most recently we have an flat-out lie on Fox, in a graphic which brazenly substituted oranges for applesc.
A HuffPo story explains here, carefully
"The show's mistake was to compare the official unemployment figure in 2009 with the so-called "real" unemployment figure in 2012. That figure takes into account data which is not included in the official number, such as people who have stopped looking for work. Thus, it is always higher than the official figure. (Official unemployment is actually .3 percentage points higher than in 2009, while "real" unemployment is .7 percentage points lower.
Fox News told Mediaite that a correction will air on tomorrow's "Fox & Friends."
But it's not just the media that's biased. It's us, too.
