The Fog Blog

Has anybody checked the stock performance of Pfizer lately? Pfizer is the manufacturer of Xanax which — as pulled from the Pfizer web site — “belongs to a group of medicines called benzodiazepines, which have helped many people feel better.”

You know what makes me feel better? Isolating myself from mainstream media.

It’s not that I don’t like to know what is happening in the world. I just find it difficult to absorb news presented by giants such as Fox, CNN, MSNBC, ABC and others. If anybody watches the news they know that headline content is primarily negative. World news is almost entirely negative. So is Business-related news. Entertainment news is subversly negative. Sports news can be negative depending on your perspective (for example, I’m a Cubs fan). And the rest gets lost in the shuffle.

I often wonder if the news reporting is actually extending the recession. In my opinion, it can and it is. I heard recently that Obama was having a very difficult time developing talking points about spending because on one hand, he wants to encourage people to go out and spend money. And on the other hand, he needs to make sure that people are being fiscally responsible. Obviously a delicate balance.

So while our leader is contemplating how to break it to people that they need to spend responsibly, the media continues to swing to the extreme. And in the case of reporting on the economy, the wrong direction. This fosters fear which extends uncertainty which limits spending which impacts earnings which results in job loss which continues the cycle.

I heard about this news source on NPR — Good News Network — and think they are onto something. In fact, today this headline was was featured: “Evidence Piling up that Worst of Recession is Over.” I perused the major news network web sites and couldn’t find anything that resembled this story. Shocker.