Effects of Media Talking Down the Economy

Rasmussen Reports has some interesting information on the effect that the media has had on the American people's impression of the state of the economy:

Only 34% of Americans believe the United States has the world’s best economy[.]
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With the Federal Reserve Board chairman making gloomy predictions this week about the country’s short-term economic future, gas now over $4 a gallon and numerous other negative indicators, 52% of adults believe the U.S. economy is not the best in the world.

Who is responsible for this? The media...

50% believe the media makes economic conditions appear worse than they really are, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
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Only a quarter (25%) think reporters and media outlets present an accurate picture of the economy and 18% believe they actually portray it as better than it is. Just 34% trust reporters more when it comes to news on the economy, and 32% see stockbrokers as more reliable.

If you think economic reporting is the only area where the media is mucking it up, check this out:

A plurality of Americans (41%) similarly believe that the media has tried to make the war in Iraq appear worse that it really is, while 26% say reporters have made it look better than reality and 25% think they’ve portrayed it accurately.

And who else gets this benefit of fawning media coverage?

A related survey found that voters see Obama getting better treatment than McCain from reporters in Election 2008.

Forty-four percent (44%) also think reporters and media outlets see U.S. society as basically unfair and discriminatory, while nearly as many (39%) say they view America as generally fair and decent. In contrast to their perception of reporters, polls consistently show that over 60% of Americans view our society as fair and decent while roughly one-third as many say it is unfair and discriminatory.

I have often stated my theory that one of the reasons why liberals can't give up on the craziness that 2000 and 2004 elections were "stolen" is that they have these idiots in the media telling them that everything is going their way when reality paints a very different picture.

And pollsters are not immune to this sort of nonsense either. How many polls continue to oversample Democrats?

Back on point...

Is it really surprising with all of this "doom and gloom" coverage from the 527 media that the American people are thinking that the economic situation is worse than actually is?

Just 35% of adults give their personal finances good or excellent ratings. One in five adults (20%) rate their personal finances as poor. While 49% of men give their finances positive ratings, just 31% of women do the same. Nineteen percent (19%) of men and 22% of women give their finances poor ratings.

Investor confidence rose half a point on Monday to 84.5. That's up a point from last week but down three points from last month. Investor confidence is just seven points above the lowest level ever recorded by the index. The index has dropped twenty-eight points since the beginning of 2008.

Among investors, 51% rate their personal finances good or excellent, while just 8% rate them as poor.

So why does everybody think their economic situation is so bad? The 527 media keeps telling them so. Why do they do that? They want to see Barack Obama in the White House. Why? Because then our economy really will be in ruin and then the 527 media will really have something to talk about.

As usual, all of this analysis is subject to the smell test review from the Business End of the Blogosphere, but I don't think I'm far off the mark here...