What Part Of 'Good" In "Good News" Does The LA Times Not Understand? (With UPDATE!)

Breaking news story - California's unemploynment rate hits the lowest numbers in the history of the governemnt tracking. An amazing statistic right? Great news, right? Well, not according to the Los Angeles Times on-line story.

Ignoring the fact that once you get record levels of employment, it is hard to get much better than that and rather than celebrarintg this healthy sign of our economny's strength - the article instead exclusively uses negative words and phrases to describe the dire condition our economy is in.


California's unemployment rate hits record low amid slow job growth
By Lisa Girion
Times Staff Writer

12:09 PM PST, November 17, 2006

California's unemployment rate dipped to a record low of 4.5% in October, the state reported today, but job growth was anemic as the continuing housing slowdown took its toll.

The jobless rate was down from 4.8% in September and the lowest since the government started tracking the number.

Employment growth, however, was subpar — a sign, analysts said, of the ongoing economic slowdown led by a falloff in home construction and sales.

So the headline and opening graphs about our history setting low employment used the phrases... slow job growth, anemic job growth, coninuing housing slowdown, falloff in construction and sales, ongoing economic slowdown, and sub-par economic growth.

The closest thing to anything positive in the opening parts of the article was that the unemployment rate 'dipped'. And not a single remotely positive word or phrase was used to describe our existing economy anywhere in the article.

It is one thing to quantify good news by explaning current trends, but it is quite another to totally bury the good news in a sea of negativity.

UPDATE!

The print story the following morning was considerably more upbeat and detailed.