The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
USA Today reports on a strong job market; Parade marches out more negativism on economy; ABC’s Kofman blows global warming-hurricane ‘link’ out of proportion.

May 24, 2006

The Good
     “Employees are feeling more confident about the labor market and their own job security as hiring picks up in a number of industries,” USA Today reporter Stephanie Armour opened her May 23 Money section article.

     Almost a week earlier, Armour also penned a story on the good job market for college graduates. “Employers expect their college hiring for 2005-06 to surpass that of the year before by nearly 14%, according to a study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE),” she noted before citing an official at NACE declaring the job market the best it’s been “in four years” for college grads.

     In a media climate otherwise inclined towards pessimism, Armour’s work stands out as The Good for this week.

The Bad
     Parade magazine marched again to a downbeat tune on the economy with its look at housing prices.

     Weeks after envisioning the American Dream slipping out of reach for most Americans, the magazine ran a pessimistic report on housing values warning that “nearly 80% of Americans think the economy” will continue as is or worsen in the coming year. But Parade writer Earl Swift didn’t tell readers how well the economy has been performing, or that Fed chairman Ben Bernanke forecasts a cooling housing market without severe economic impact.

     Amidst strong economic growth, it “seems pretty clear now that the U.S. housing market is cooling,” the Associated Press quoted Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on May 18. Bernanke described the slowdown as “a very orderly and moderate kind of cooling” in the housing market. AP writer Jeannine Aversa added that “Many economists predict growth will moderate to around 3% in the April-to-June quarter,” which is “still a good pace.”

The Ugly
     ABC’s Jeffrey Kofman picked up on the government’s 2006 hurricane season forecast to suggest a link between devastating hurricanes and global warming. Yet scientists are far less certain on the science than Kofman suggested, including the meteorologist Kofman included in his report.

     In defense of the global warming link to strong hurricanes, Kofman cited Professor Hugh Willoughby of Florida International University who told him that it was a “disturbing possibility” that “10 to 20 years from now” there might not be a lull in the number of hurricanes “because of global warming.”

     Yet Willoughby, a former National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) research meteorologist, is far from an unwavering believer in a link between global warming and intense hurricanes. At a lecture in March at the University of South Florida, Willoughby “generally dismissed global warming as a cause for the increase in recent big hurricanes,” reported Randolph Fillmore on March 3. The main causes were “a lack of shear (a high-altitude change in wind speed or direction) in the atmosphere over the Gulf of Mexico.”

     “Shear is poison to hurricanes,” Willoughby continued, adding that while “global warming may have some effect,” it was not “the main thing happening” in the destructive 2005 hurricane season.

     The Business & Media Institute has previously documented the media’s penchant for linking hurricane strength to global warming.

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly tracks the best and worst media coverage of business and economics. Readers are invited to submit suggestions or news tips to staff writer Ken Shepherd at kshepherd@mediaresearch.org.