News Flash! (Updated)

Just the opinions ma'am....


(Reports show more Americans feel economic recovery", Christopher S. Rugaber, AP Econ writer via ChronBlog)

A flurry of reports out today suggested that many Americans are feeling better about the economic rebound.

That's GREAT! Finally signs the economy is turning around! Democrats everywhere can breathe a sigh of relief, Obama has fixed this sucker.....Oh wait......

Pandl estimates consumer spending may have risen by as much as 4 percent in the January-to-March quarter — more than double the 1.6 percent rise in last year's fourth quarter. That would be the biggest quarterly gain in three years.

Well....that's good but:

The gain is largely a result of reduced saving. Disposable income actually dipped in the first quarter

Economics are calling this "an expectation of the American consumer that good times are on the way." That's fine, but it also could mean that people just finally got to the point where they needed stuff after making severe cutbacks, and had to dip into savings to get it.

That this opinion piece was written shouldn't offend. That the editors (both at the AP and ChronBlog) let this run as 'news' probably should. As should the ChronBlog headline: "Americans like what the economy's doing." Wow.




That pretty much explains it.....


Sleeping through a run-off, Joe Holley, ChronBlog)

Personally, I hope Curling wins, for one reason. Imagine all the puns we bloggers can bandy about with an anesthesiologist in the House.

It's nice to see that the beat writers are taking this ChronBlog suggestion to heart.




If a tree falls in the woods.....

(Houston and H20, ChronBlog Caucasian Think-Tank, ChronBlog)

We urge City Council to do best by Houstonians present and future by selecting the “best practices” option.

Sounds good to me, but the question is: Is anyone paying attention to what these folks are saying? You'd think a hot-button issue like the water rate increase would at LEAST get one comment right?



Wrong on so many levels......

(TribBlog: Don McLeroy on Al Jazeera, Brian Thevenot, Texas Tribune)

Yes, that Al Jazeera, the network known for a certain amount of sensationalism and anti-Americanism in its coverage

Just to clarify, the story ran in Al Jazeera ENGLISH which is actually ran by a Canadian and is one of the better International news organizations out there.

You might think McLeroy, known for liberal-media conspiracy-thinking, might shy away the Arab world's favorite news source. But you’d be wrong: The man loves a camera of any kind. (He likes in-depth print or online media interviews quite a bit less; he tends to cut me off after five minutes.)

What does it say that McLeroy knows he's going to get fairer coverage from a news source out of the Middle East than the very left-leaning Texas Tribune?

What’s more, the Al Jazeera piece is one of one of the more in-depth and fair I’ve seen on television, hitting the high points without the hysteria and fact errors that has plagued, say, Fox News' coverage. The piece ran some seven minutes — an eternity in TV. And the reporter treated McLeroy quite even-handedly.

Or say...Texas Tribune's coverage, especially this piece, which is so full of low blows and un-opposed writer opinion it's terrible. Not to mention the whole Western culture superiority vibe that Thevenot has going on here....That's right, how cute it is that the little foreign fella' over there had the pluck and know how to go out and do a right sure professional interview. Why he didn't even treat McLeroy unfairly! Hey, 'scuse me...what's another way to say McLeroy is a fat ass?



And reporters wonder why they find themselves less liked than politicians. Maybe it's because politicians are doing a better job in DC than reporter/bloggers are in reporting the news? (As hard as that is to believe.)



Update

Read L'il Red's blog post....Then go back and count how many times she uses "I" in the post.....terrible, terrible, terrible.