In a recent editorial the Herald stated “[the economy’s] remarkable performance has made a mockery of the most gloomy economic commentary in the past year”. This was under the heading “too good to be true – and we know it”.
In the same issue your Thomas Coughlan says that the Government’s books are in “curiously” good shape. This term is telling. Again, “too good to be true”?
In a similar vein BusinessNZ stated in your Friday issue “… current historically low levels of unemployment, modest Crown debt by international standards, and commodity prices still holding up ..”. This under the headline “storm clouds building”.
In the same issue an item on the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme states “… of banks’ business lending as at November, only 0.4 per cent was non-performing … This is a very low portion by historical standards”. This under the headline “Govt underwrite … wasn’t entirely necessary”.
It seems we just cannot bring ourselves to celebrate our good fortune, even in our Christmas season!
Peter Davis, Kingsland
Peter Davis NZ 
Hi Peter
I agree. Media often seem to be pushing an editorial line irrespective of the facts. Disappointed to see Thomas Coughlan falling for it, though, unless ‘curiously’ was editorial.
Feeling slightly smug about my sub to The Kaka. Bernard Hickey is nothing if not assiduous about research and careful not to stretch the facts.
LikeLike
Nice to hear from you. Keep up the good work – speaking truth to power!
LikeLike
Bad new sells better than good news, so why not dress up good news with bad news style headlines. Perhaps not a problem in the past when folk actually read the article after being drawn in by the headline, but now in the era of the Tweet, a headline is the content for far too many people.
LikeLike
Too right! It’s the misleading headlines, but also the stories themselves were kind of slanted to present a “glass half empty”.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excuse the mangling of a common saying: It’s called making the worst of a good story.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’ve hit the nail on the head … again. The heading grabbers offered by the media often do not reflect the content. No wonder the perception that people hold of the media has gone down so much.
LikeLike
Thank you. That’s very kind of you. And I was not expecting much take-up for a post at this time of year! All the best for the New Year! peter
LikeLike