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I don't think the Beeb is guilty of 'talking down' the economy into a self-fulfilling prophecy of a downward spiral into gloom, doom and a 'Made in the Newsroom' recession.

However the media generally report economic updates on a 'Good News is No News' bias.

Take the example of the strength or weakness of the pound.

The pound is strengthening - Panic ! Exporters are going to go bust as their goods will be less competitive abroad ! Our balance of payments will suffer as more cheap imports are sucked in.

The pound is weakening - Turmoil ! Our economy is going down the tubes and holidays in Europe will cost more. Our imported goods will cost more and thus fuel inflation...

Well, I exaggerate - but you get the picture - there is a flip-side of the coin for every story.

I don't think anyone could you accuse you of not talking about the economy.

I think if you could be a little more honest about the state of it and the reasons why.

The ever rising price of Oil as an example.

Guys like Lindsay Williams have been talking about this for the last few years. $150 barrels of Oil. So maybe some truth in how all that has happened please.

The present financial crisis is of absolutely no shock to some of us. It's been designed and built and organised and now enacted.

You occasionally touch upon this when you talk of boom and bust but you always seem to presuppose that this is a natural process.

You avoid any talk of the crazy world of fractional reserve banking and always report things that happen as though they are a complete surprise.

Also the Big Economic story is not us right now, its over the pond where they seem to have to make a decision between invading Iran or watching their Economy Crash and this is just as the citizenry seem to be waking up to the Con that is the Fed, and mutterings of uprising are spreading are abound. (will you cover the 12th July march in Washington?)


Somethings going to knock them over the edge in the US soon, and you should be informing folks, because the fallout from will soon drift over here.

Lots of folks are going to lose a lot of money and i don't think they will be too happy.

Jeremy,

How can the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ talk down the economy?

Hugh Pym, enjoy your time as ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Economics Editor....You have a nice new office---many new hours and shifts...

Stephanie: Take all the time needed...Keep in contact, We want you to come back as quickly as possible...

The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's coverage of the state of the economy merely reflects the neoliberal consensus that exists amongst the mainstream parties in the House of Commons today.

Most ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ economic commentators are clearly apologists for capitalism who fail to emphasise the fact that Central Banks who bail out banks are in fact bailing out capitalism in general!

When issues like house prices or inflation are discussed on forum programmes etc the entire emphasis seems to revolve around providing a customer service hotline where individual homeowners or small business owners air their own personal travails and grievances. This prevents an independent 'big picture' analysis of the macro economy which is the duty of a public service broadcaster to provide!

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I think coverage may have 'bottomed out' on the economic position.

For weeks we've had to suffer through non-stop coverage of the 'credit crunch'. Perhaps I was just unlucky in the selection of articles I saw, however every day for a week ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Breakfast (and GMTV) were talking about nothing else which became rather tiresome.

What self delusional megalomaniacal ego. Someone at ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ even entertains the idea that this media network can actually influence the economy? Pathetic. We have a handful of stock analysts and major movers and shakers in the financial world who can influence the markets on a short term basis but a radio station affecting the UK economy? Hillarious. Time for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ to have a reality check.

Well it is hard to trust any figures you quote when, for instance, the you consistantly grossly understate the number of civilian deaths due to the war in Iraq.

Anyone who can ignore the most accurate estimates from the most experienced reseachers on such a serious subject is not someone I would trust to tell me what the real state of the economy is.

How often do you get £10,000 mixed up with £1M in these dort of reports?

The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ, like all news outlets, is merely repeating the line of conventional wisdom when looking at any subject. However, they are unwittingly supporting the agenda of the controlling factions within government, banking and commerce. This agenda decrees that the public should be sold a certain line over the "credit crunch" or the "food crisis" or "terrorism" in order to produce the desired outcome. They realise that most people will never question the news they see, hear and read in the popular media and so the agenda of fear leading to control and dependancy continues apace.

Fortunately, there are increasing numbers of people now waking up and reading between the lines of conventional newscasts using knowledge based on a very different way of looking at the world.
Having already worked out the game plan and the end game we are living in, it is easy to see and even predict the events being used to manipulate our reality such as the "credit crunch".

Look all, the credit crunch will only effect the poor of our World. The Golden mountain that man has built over the last few thousand year's, without putting one simply rule on money has made our Earth live a life at a different angle.
Today rich or poor, it's no ones fault, because we live on from what our ancestors pass on to us. Today without one simply rule on how much Gold one can have, we have 5 classes of people instead of what should of been 3. With greed you will get opposite effects (Greed, rich middle, poor,need One) man right at the top, millions below in the depths of hell, fighting to climb for the Golden ticket to the man made fake Heaven of gold and freedom. In history the men of power and gold told the people if your good and you don't steal, when you die you will go to heaven throw those big Golden gates. We to strive for greed and what a mess and hell your given Heaven on Earth will be. The rich surround their belongings with metal fences and put alarms on their alarms to protect themselves from the hungry scum. One day the Golden mountain that been built through time will tumble, then Gold will return to the mud it once belonged. We used to trade with food and you could work and help yourselves, with Gold man can cheat and store as much as he can get, because Gold unlike food does not rot.
I wish I lived in a more intelligent Planet.

It isn't necessarily the Beeb who are guilty of scaremongering, but journalism itself! That said you can only publish what is put in front of you and the economic forecasts coming through do not make for pleasant reading.

"The Nationwide reckons they have fallen by less, down by 4.7% in the first five months of the year, and by 3.2% in the past three months." This was taken from a ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ story on 12 June 2008, this is clearly a move to put a positive spin on a very bad situation by a major high street mortgage lender. Data taken from the PropertySnake website indicates that house prices in London have dropped by as much as 40% in some areas!

My point is the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ could be trawling the net for the most damning statistics around, but it chooses not too! Instead generating stories from government figures and information from recognised organisations, this can no way be viewed as 'pessimistic'.

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11 Robinhoe

Haven't you just explained the very great importance of reporting verifiable data. The net is awash with terrabytes of totally unsubstantiated theories, statistics and bigoted opinion of all shades.

In the light of this avalanche of low-grade opinion masquerading as facts, surely it is more important than ever that the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ concentrates on sober, verifiable information. Otherwise the hard won reputation for good quality (mostly) journalism will be gone faster than you can say dodgy dossier!

The thing I always notice is that whenever the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is accused of something, an editor's blog appears and he arrives at the conclusion that the accuser is wrong. Every single time. It is evident that the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ can NEVER see when they are wrong. It's like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas asking a ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ editor to give a fair and honest opinion of whether the criticism landed at his door is accurate.

For what it's worth, the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ can put ideas into peoples' minds that the economy is heading downhill, by running stories such as "energy prices to rise by 40% this winter." But people only have to go and fill up at the petrol station, or shop for food, and we all know things are in trouble! The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ has limited ability to influence people on either the economy or politics. As much as you might think you can influence us, you can't. Daily life influences us. Hence the Conservative landslide in the recent local and London elections.

The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ can put ideas into peoples' minds that the economy is heading downhill, by running stories such as "energy prices to rise by 40% this winter." But people only have to go and fill up at the petrol station, or shop for food, and we all know things are in trouble! The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ has limited ability to influence people on either the economy or politics. As much as you might think you can influence us, you can't. Daily life influences us. Hence the Conservative landslide in the recent local and London elections.

that's a great picture of the governor.

is he auditioning for the new bond film as "Ernst Bolfeld"?

GGoooddd-byeee!! Meester Broownn!!

The state of the Economy is governed and altered by a plethora of people, organisations and actions and if the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ by reporting on the news is part of this then 'That is Life', so are all the other Media outlets only they diffuse it with advertisements.

Is the point then that the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is singled out for not helping the economy by not advertising? Oh please! That's WHY I watch the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and happy to pay for that luxury in this 'profit before people' world.

Thank goodness someone's got it right.

Going back thousands of years it was then the 7 years of plenty and the 7 years of famine. Things don't change much, do they?

If it wasn't for the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ no one would know what the state of the economy was anywhere for the benefit of the public's interest all over the world.

Constructive criticism only please with solutions!

The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is generally as balanced as ever, and superior to other media, BUT......i would like to hear a lot more heads/executives of various companies being made to justify their enormous salaries compared to the rest of us and that includes MPs who get expenses that are double the amount many of us take home, and those in the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ who earn extravagant amounts of money. Surely in a time of crisis, they could bring themselves to take alot less from their still profitting companies. It might not help us, but it would improve the general attitude in the country if, say, the heads of fuel companies took a drastic cut in salary, and gave what they could to those who have great need even in Britain.

I think overall the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ does a pretty good job of filtering out the news from all the data around. However, where I feel the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ are responsible is not necessarily the content of some of their reports, but the way in which it is reported.
There is a terrible move towards sensationalistic 'tabloid' style reporting which is not helpful, or in some cases balanced.
Why all the doom and gloom about fixed-rate mortgage costs? This only affects a tiny majority of people that are taking out a new loan and not the majority, for whom if you don't move, have no effect.
Whilst it is clear Labour's tax an spend policies of the past 11 years are unravelling at an alarming rate, the reports do not seem to want to tackle this and instead blame it on global reasons.

After watching the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ reporter on the fuel strikes two weeks ago say

"This is just 7% of the total amount of petrol stations.... BUT...." I'm of absolutely no doubt that the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ do nothing but exaserbate the situation. The impartiality has gone, and spin is the order of the day it seems.

I would suggest that what doesnt come through in your reporting well enough is the obvious divide of consequences on rich and poor. The people that are suffering now because of the credit crunch are mainly insitutional shareholders who will survive any med-long term downturn. Even on your breakfast show you move between stories of economic downturn to your gleeful breakfast sports and presenters about charming britain.

Well the world doesnt work like that and the common man will suffer from rich capitalist greed plunging more children into poverty and keeping people below unrecoverable debt and other deepening social issues. Its an old issue but there is still a prevaling class divide which never seems to surface into your journalism.

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The system that strives for money, what ever status of wealth, it's no one fault. Our Earth was passed on to us from our learning ancestor's, they did not or could not predict our future, nor can we today. With our invention of money and not laying down proper and fair rule in history, our human race has woken up to our crazy sad World. In our World your ok if you have money or if you are born into it, If not learn to live in the hell around you. Money, without fair rules has created the hell on Earth. Hope man will come to it's senses? There could be a better place for all. Who's born Earth is this? You fake God of Gold against our true Heaven that's waiting.

lostTROY...... erm....... What?

I understood the individual words, but I'm afraid the order you've put them in has gotten me a little lost....

Are you advocating that we all get rid of money and go back to the bartering system, or something of a similar ilk? And I dispute your statement about how being born into money is the only way to be ok, there are many of us who work to get where we are.

And anyway, about this "hell on earth" and "heaven that's waiting" you talk about, what exactly has this got to do with the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's reporting on the current economical situation?

By the way Jeremy, I think the Beeb's reporting has, on the whole, been fair and well rounded.

Thanks for all your hard work!

s_slatt, no money was a great invention, like every invention, it needs good rules. When money first came in, the rulers of that time didn't make one important rule, that's how much one can have. They didn't think about it or even want to think about the futures out come. No one can predict the future and in histotory man done all they could to survive. We used to trade with food, you could work and help yourself to feed your family. With gold, unlike food does not rot, you can store as much as you like and today man can cheat by relaxing, whist all the rest of our rat race can fight and kill to reach our made up fake Heaven of Gold. We need to build prisons and police ourselves because of our division. Our Golden ladder in life is creating the hell that's growing on Earth. If they did think about this year's ago our Earth would of be seen by man today at a different angle. It's man today that needs to wake up, because it's not God that will change things here, it's us, because we are in control of our own future. oh, it's not got much to do with the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ'S or this thread, but everything in the world you live.

LostTrOY

ah I see what you mean now, I still think I disagree with you though. And as you say, it's not got much to do with the thread, but it certainly is an interesting debate.

Personally, I see money as a means to an end, if I have money I effectively have somewhere for my family and myself to live, something to eat, healthcare, entertainment, transport..... etc etc. I work hard for my wage and am paid an amount that reflect the level of service I provide, as I imagine the vast majority of people do.

In theory giving everybody the same wage is a noble idea, but in reality it detracts from a person's worth to society. It will take away ingenuity, invention and the desire to strive as there is no reward at the end of all your hard work. If everyone gets the same no matter what, why would anyone bother working hard?

It is human nature to want reward for work, for example Cuba has recently scrapped their system for salary equality (which is what you seem to be advocating). Cuba's system ruled that everyone from lower workers up to managers should earn the same amount, with no bonuses for exemplary work. This has caused certain sectors to stagnate as there has been no incentive to work harder as everyone will get the same, no matter what their performance has been.

In our society it is harmful to give someone what they do not deserve, in exactly the same way that it's harmful not to give someone what they do deserve.

These are the basic rules that have been created for money as I see them. You may not like them, as they do promote inequality by the fact that there will be rich and poor people, but for anyone who is willing to work for their reward I believe they are perfectly adequate, especially if you then add in taxes on the rich to help those who are unable to help themselves, as we have (vaguely) done.

As for the police and prisons that we have created, they are there to enforce these rules and punish those who break them.

Sorry for the length of this reply, but I was unable to put my thoughts across any more succinctly.... I look forward to your reply though.

Could you pleae tell me who the reporter is that looks a lot like Stephanie Flanders who is appearing on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ News (given she is on leave)?

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You do talk things down - as I write there is a heading about the slide in world shares which implies they are in universal decline - and yet in the article you say FTSE is going up.
It is irresponsible, it does cause anxiety, and you are more of the problem than you should be.

I think the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ ought to be better than the press - and you could do a lot to raise the mntion's morale without in any way being dishonest. Not can I imagine it woul dhurt your ratings.

The economy is just the latest in a long line of topics which the mass media (which unfortunately, now includes the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ) routinely sensationalises on a daily basis. If it's not the credit crunch or the cost of food or fuel prices it's climate change, the obesity epidemic, the war on terror or bird flu (there was a report on yesterday's news about how this could spell catastrophe for the human race WHEN it mutates (note, there is no signs as yet that it will, much less has, jumped the species gap). As a sociologist I'm quite interested in moral panics - and I'd argue that many of the stories which top the UK news agenda, and the tone in which they are reported, fit the description perfectly.

Falling back on 'expert opinion' as a justification is lazy, since any news or health blogger will tell you that scientists and researchers are not Gods but people whose opinions are more easily swayed that you'd believe by lucrative research awards or the threat of professional censure. There are many opposing views on what at first glance appear to be universally accepted concepts such as climate change and the obesity epidemic, but they've been marginalised, ridiculed and ignored by the flawed system of peer review and media organisations which regurgitate press releases and questionable statistics instead of carrying out their own investigations into the real facts. And it goes without saying that not all statistics and the think-tanks and pressure groups that frequently produce them should be given equal weight - but that's exactly what the Beeb has been guilty of doing.

Then there's the power of repetition - if the same few stories consistently find their way to the top of the agenda the public will ultimately begin to tow the media line on these topics - which unsurprisingly normally corresponds to the official view as well. The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ has the most visited website in the country, a dedicated 24-hour news channel, TV and radio bulletins throughout the day, and numerous 'current affairs lite' programmes such as The ONE Show, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Breakfast and Sunday Life which are if anything more dangerous because of their superficial treatment of major issues. Anyone who therefore believes the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ lacks the power to influence British public opinion with its news agenda is immensely naive.

Finally, I'd be very wary of trusting official data from a Government which has made stoking up fear and uncertainty of possible Armageddon around every corner a political tactic, which it then uses in order to gain more control over the populace by offering 'the solution' (green taxes, obesity campaigns, terror legislation or whatever). It's interesting to see how whenever they're debating ID cards or repressive terror legislation, we're all suddenly made very aware of Scotland Yard data about operative terrorist cells or 'alerted' to foiled Islamist plots. By sensationalising major news topics you're unwittingly doing the Government's bidding. Your motive may be to generate more public interest in a story but at the same time you're perpetuating a climate of anxiety and politicising the issue.

Has most of the media has been so busy in the character assassination of Gordon Brown (a la Tony Blair) that it has really overlooked a very hot topic?
Who are the directors of the banks and other financial concerns who provided loans to unreliable debtors to such an extent that we are in the present financial crisis? Why did they do it? How much did they receive in salaries, fees and bonuses in respect of these loans? Are they going to keep this loot?
Journalists often justify the excesses of the media by saying ( and quite rightly) that they need the freedom to unearth information that would otherwise be kept secret. So they have the freedom. When are we going to see the action?

Of course the Beeb is talking down the economy - stop kidding yourself! Case in point - Evan Davis' "interview" with Jeremy Leaf of RICS. Sure the news was bad, but Leaf thought that there were some interesting signs - completely shouted down by Davis.

If I remember correctly the report in the huge surge in retail sales referred to above was accompanied by a dire warning about interest rates. Way to (not) talk the economy down!

Sensational stories highlighting would COULD happen and shocking stories about thousands of people in NEGATIVE EQUITY (er, that would be 23,000) all add to the feeling that things are bad.

Obviously you are under no obligation to talk up the economy, but balanced reporting would be great.

I recently sent this email to the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ regarding this very blog entry. If only to avoid irony, I tried to keep my points from sounding too exaggerated, and I only hope some users might agree with my views. If not, please don't worry about it too much ;) Enjoy:

----------------

With regards to your news editor's semi-recent blog entry "Fair and Balanced Reporting" (or similar), I must let you know that I find your news stories quite the opposite; sensationalist and severely unbalanced.

I have browsed this website several times per day for over three years now, but have found now that every time I do so, my mood decreases. I am tired of seeing blatantly exaggerated headlines which do not match the content of their respective articles. Let me quickly pose two examples to you: your article "Children given detention for refusing to 'Kneel and Praise Allah'" - not technically true - and a featured video - "Betancourt Hostage Rescue Video Released" which was actually just a video of Ms. Betancourt being reuinited with friends! Hardly what I would deem accurate and fair reporting.

Finally I am tired of the utterly predictable cycle of obvious and provocative "Have Your Say" questions which seem constantly aimed at intentionally invoking strong, political debate amongst site users - and judging by some users' comments, I am not the only one who feels this way.

"Fair and balanced"? Try again, please.

I'm afraid to say I cannot be so kind to the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ as other commentators have.
We have to bear in mind that the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is paid by the taxpayers to be neutral.
The reporting of overseas news certainly fulfils this objective but domestic politics and current affair cannot in any way be considered neutral in the same way.
The domestic ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ news agenda is driven by commentators who are part of London liberal set or members of the Westminster village who probably aren't short of a bob or two judging by their recent pay rises who assume that everything that goes on inside the M25 loop is replicated around the country.
In the real world this is not the case and the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ should reflect the realities of the politics and current affairs of outside London as well as inside to reflect the real issues that effect those people who don't live in London. What's rosy in London is often not as rosy elsewhere and as a neutral the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ should reflect this.