Recession Never Recedes Far from News Comments

Recession Never Recedes Far from News Comments
TV reports continue to raise the specter of economic troubles despite strong growth and low unemployment.

By Dan Gainor
The Boone Pickens Free Market Fellow
Business & Media Institute
June 14, 2006

     No matter how the economy is doing, the word recession never seems too far away. CBS began the year with talk of a recession and similar discussion has cropped on up ABC and CNN throughout 2006 and even going back to Hurricane Rita last fall.

     ABC delivered two separate warnings of the latest recession fears on June 7. Starting with Good Morning America, the network ran counter to recent news that first-quarter growth had been revised upward. The new number was even stronger: 5.3 percent. Despite that excellent performance, reporter Robin Roberts warned that a recession was possible. The two-day sell off was sparked by concerns that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates too much, cooling the economy to the point of recession, she claimed.

     Later that same day, ABC correspondent Betsy Stark gave the World News Tonight audience another dose of bad medicine by again talking about a possible recession. Stark also warned that the Federal Reserve could cause a recession if it were to raise interest rates too much to fight inflation.