Associated Press Depresses Me

This past week, the Associated Press made headlines for trying to rewrite the nation's copyright and "fair use" laws by tell bloggers what they can and cannot do when copying from or linking to their articles. Maybe they should worry a little less about how bloggers are driving traffic to their sites and a little more about whether their news articles are actually news.

This pessimistic, pandering, non-news item ticked me off this morning: Entitled, "Everything seemingly is spinning out of control," two AP writers offer an editorial that isn't labeled as such and a "news" item that contains no news. (Hint to AP: When you need to use the word "seemingly" in the headline, it's a sign to go back and reconsider the objectivity and factual basis for a news piece.)

Their contention is that everything is spinning out of control and Americans are feeling helpless. Of course, there are problems today--such as flooding, gas prices, water shortages, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without end, and air fares rising--and to AP this all means, "The can-do, bootstrap approach embedded in the American psyche is under assault" from "dour powerlessness." The "article" ends with this: "Maybe this is what the 21st century will be about — a great unraveling of some things long taken for granted."

The Associated Press can go screw themselves. I get angry when, in times of challenge, the media accelerates anxiety by focusing on every piece of iffy news and glossing over positive signs. For example, we all know the doom and gloom in the economy, but did you know there's been positive news as of late? Keep in mind "good news" is relative, but in the past month or two came word the US economy is not in a recession (at least not yet) by any definition used by economists and the government, that manufacturing is showing surprising strength, that construction spending was stronger than expected, that the US Service Sector is still growing (albeit by a small amount), and that first-time claims for unemployment fell.

Part of the reason I get angry about this media fixation on negativity is that consumer expectation is its own self-fulfilling prophecy. If we feel anxious about the future, we stop spending and this feeds a poor economy. If we feel optimistic about our futures, we spend and live as if tomorrow will be better than today.

Perhaps it isn't Americans that feel helpless, as the AP claims, but instead are news organizations that feel helpless. Newspaper subscriptions are dropping, TV ratings are down, more people are getting their news online where ad revenues are a challenge, and the AP is lashing out at bloggers. Must be sorry times to be an AP employee!

My greatest gripe is that there are always reasons to be concerned. My grandfather lived his life assuming the very foundation of the American economy and way of life was always about to crumble. His pessimism pervaded his entire life, and while he may someday be proven right--maybe decades from now, maybe centuries from now--he could have lived a better life if he didn't think the end of our culture was imminent.

Perhaps the two AP writers who find that today is so much more uncertain and fearful than the past are young and do not remember 9/11, stagflation, the cold war, race riots, and other dark periods in American history. The Associated Press can ring its hands and worry that the country and the world are unraveling, but if Americans and other citizens of the globe would ignore the pandering and alarmist media, we'd all be much better off.