Gee, I wonder which newspaper is propagandizing for bushco…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 2:41 PM Permalink

…when I see such disparate headlines from the NYT and washingtonpost.com.

Headline from NYT:

G.D.P. Grows at Tepid 1.9% Pace Despite Stimulus

Headline from washingtonpost.com:

U.S. Economy Grows at Solid Pace in 2nd Quarter

Salient points from NYT article:

The American economy expanded at a weaker-than-expected 1.9 percent annual rate between April and June, the Commerce Department announced Thursday, while numbers for the last three months of 2007 were revised downward to show a contraction — the first dip since the recession of 2001.[…]

“We already knew the economy was weak, and now you have both a negative growth number coupled with job losses,” said Dean Baker, a director of the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research. “There’s a lot of real bad times to come.”

President Bush zeroed in on the positive growth rate in the second quarter as a sign of resilience, dismissing the characterizations of professional economists.

“We got some positive news today,” the president said…

In what country does bush live and how could anyone be so disconnected from reality?

More from WaPo.com:

The U.S. economy grew at a solid pace in the second quarter, the government said today, despite being buffeted by a financial crisis, a deep housing slump, high fuel prices and a weak job market.

Gross domestic product rose at a 1.9 percent inflation-adjusted annual rate in the April through June period, the department said, far above what forecasters would have expected just a few months ago but below their more recent projections. It was boosted by strong exports resulting from the lower value of the dollar and rising consumer spending by Americans, who benefited from the stimulus checks.

That represents an improvement over the 0.9 percent growth rate of the first quarter and an economy that shrank 0.2 percent, according to the newly revised data, in the final months of 2007.

Other sources of strength were in the building of offices, hotels and other commercial construction, and spending by the government.…

I have repeatedly noted in the past that any bushco economic figures cannot ever be trusted as the figures released are inevitably revised downward within a couple of months.

I certainly understand that different people may look at figures such as these differently, the old 'glass is half full or the glass is half empty' thing, but it appears that the White House's water is being carried by the WaPo in a rather transparent manner.

Maybe the WaPo, like Faux Noise, receives their talking points directly from bushco.

Labels: Bushco, disinformation, Economy, MSM, propaganda