Media Noise
Does anyone else find this phrase meaningless?
The International Herald Tribune
has reported that business confidence
in France is the worst in 1 1/2 years.
So business confidence is the worst in 1.5 years, but not the worst in 2 years. Why pick such an arbitrary number like 1 1/2 years? Because “second worst in 2 years” doesn’t sound dramatic enough. This is just an example of news being plucked out of the air, meant to fill space and with any luck to stir emotions in the reader (other than skepticism 🙂 ).
I’m still trying hard to avoid market noise, though can’t say I’m entirely successful.
On a different note, to commemorate U.S. dollar’s recent rise (whooo whaaa!), here’s a cartoon I’m borrowing from The Onion – America’s Finest News Source.
That’s OK, our local paper reports the condition of our area jobless rate every time it shifts directions.
The amount of information doubles every, what, 5-7 years? But the quality of the information drops by the same amount twice as fast 🙂
At least the radio station I listen to is honest about the news they read: “News you don’t necessarily need, but might be curious to hear anyway”.