A Rare Tuesday Update

My Rotary meeting is on Tuesdays, and I'm usually extra busy as a result. Today was no exception, and in fact rather more stressful then usual since today was a Board meeting. My club has many chiefs and few indians. Even worse, all the chiefs are concentrated in the board. Several of the members were amused just by watching me try to corral this group. Even so, since I didn't post on Monday, I thought an update was in order.

I did make it in to work Monday, although I left early. I think I'm finally over this stomach flu / virus thing, and none too soon. It's not anybody's idea of fun.

Over on Instapundit, the Good Professor is "wondering" why bad economic news seems to dominate media coverage. He has a theory, of course - something about the Big Bad MSM (Main Stream Media) conspiring to do something or other.

I have a simpler explanation, which has as an added bonus broader application. Ready? Here it is. "If it bleeds it leads."

Bad news sells. Your local TV news will never (or almost never) run a story saying "no traffic accidents today." They may not have a traffic accident IN the news, but if there are no accidents, they'll cover something else.

The same effect holds true in economic news. Good news, unless it is spectacular, doesn't attract the same attention as bad news. The corollary is, once everybody is saying how good the economy is, a recession is just around the corner. (Excuse me for a second, the dot-com bust is holding on line one.)

Don't get me wrong - I like Instapundit and have it bookmarked. But everybody has ideological blinders, and in this case his are showing.