MEDIA MANIPULATED MOOD?

Daniel Henninger wonders why 70% of the people polled by the Gallup Organization think America is headed in the wrong direction, when 84% think things are going well:

On New Year's Eve, Gallup's poll delivered unto us the good news that 84% of Americans say they are satisfied with how things are going for them personally. What Woody Allen might say about that phenomenal datum of good cheer one can only guess. One then has to account for the darker data Gallup released two weeks earlier: Some 70% of those responding believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction.

That does seem contradictory, if not paradoxical.

He provides some evidence of progress:

The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics annually publishes data on the well-being of the nation's children, thought by many to be the point of all this effort.

In 1980, deaths per 100,000 U.S. children aged 5 to 14 was 30.6; by 2004, that number fell to 16.8. Some 25 years ago, daily cigarette smoking among 12th graders was about 21%; in 2006 it was about 12% for both males and females. Childhood immunizations are rising steadily.

In August, the Centers for Disease Control noted that the death rate in 2004 fell by 3.8% in a year, "a record low historical figure." Life expectancy for men and women at birth in 1940 was 63 years; it is now nearly 78 years. We, or someone, must be doing something right.

Why then the gloom?

I think it is manipulated by the MSM.

Look at this lead from the lead story in Saturday's New Duranty Times:

The unemployment rate surged to 5 percent in December as the economy added a meager 18,000 jobs, the smallest monthly increase in four years, the Labor Department reported on Friday.

Got that? "Surged." Wow.

As the indefatigatible Gateway Pundit showed, the media treated a similar rise in the unemployment rate (to an even higher level!) very differently when BJ Clinton was in the White House:

June 7, 1996-- Here is how the mainstream news (Dan Rather) reported that the unemployment rate jumped up to 5.6%:

“The government came out today with its latest report on unemployment. It says the unemployment rate rose slightly, 2/10ths of a point last month, up to 5.6 percent – still low overall. And the numbers, pure and simple, can be misleading. Economics correspondent Ray Brady tonight has the story behind them.”

Fact is, average unemployment during the Bush presidency has been lower than it was during the Clinton presidency. Moral of the story? If you want to live like a Republican -- vote for a Republican!