Enough Bad News, Already

The economy's in the tank. We know this. Home foreclosures and layoffs are both increasing. We realize this. Available credit and disposable income are both decreasing. We understand this. We're being barraged with this information. We're even doing something about it. We're finally learning that we can't just spend and spend... we need to save for a rainy day. We're starting to do that.

Now that we're doing what we've been told repeatedly that we need to do, retailers are crying about how we're not spending. "If consumers don't spend, the layoffs will continue," they lament. Well la-dee-freaking-da! Those ass-hats spent years -- decades -- looking out for their interests... maximizing their profits and selling us crappy wares they somehow convinced us that we couldn't live without. They didn't care if they collectively put us into the poor house, as long as they made their money. Well, lo and behold, we all ran out of money. But I'm digressing from my original point.

Here's my original point. We all know times are tough. But the mainstream media, in their quest for sensational news, has been spinning everything to make it look as bleak as possible. Just last week, it was reported that pending January home sales has made a slight increase as people bargain hunt for cheap homes. But they spun things and focused on how homes have lost so much value, and people have lost wealth. They speculated that the increase was possibly a blip. Ummm... hey folks, we already know this.

At what point does the media create self-sustaining news by spinning everything to look catastrophic? I realize that we can't just wish and hope our way out of the current state of affairs, but lately it seems to me that the media is blackwashing everything in the name of increasing their sales and ratings. Maybe, just maybe, if the media reported facts without all of the spin and speculation, it could be a first step in a recovery. After all, if you keep telling the masses that life sucks, they're likely to keep believing you. Sticking to the facts would be a great first step in breaking the cycle of gloom and doom.