USA Today, Washington Post Repeat Inflation Concerns
But big story in 2005 was how economy weathered energy prices, says economist.

By Ken Shepherd
Free Market Project
Jan. 19, 2006

     USA Today and The Washington Post hyped inflation fears today rather than focus on optimistic outlooks from economists or a Federal Reserve report showing strong economic growth in the weeks closing 2005.

     USA Today editors placed Barbara Hagenbaugh’s article, “3.4% inflation is worst in 5 years,” below the fold on the front page of the Jan. 19 paper, while Nell Henderson’s “Inflation Hit Five-Year High of 3.4% Last Year” commanded the front page of the Washington Post’s Jan. 19 Business section. By contrast, USA Today buried favorable economic analysis from the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book on page 5 of its Money section while the Post’s Henderson only briefly mentioned it in her inflation story.

     Both writers led with reports about a “five-year-high” in inflation, although the overall inflation rate in 2005, 3.4 percent, was virtually unchanged from the 2004 rate, 3.3 percent. Additionally, core inflation, a more accurate measure of inflation as it excludes volatile fuel and energy prices, was unchanged from 2004 at 2.2 percent.

     Hagenbaugh did note that core inflation was “slightly below the 2.3% annual average seen over the last decade,” and both Hagenbaugh and Henderson ran a quote from economist Nariman Behravesh that “record-high energy prices did not spill over into the rest of the economy.” The Post’s Henderson, however, excluded the first part of the sentence in which the Global Insight economist called low inflation “the single best piece of economic news in 2005.” The Free Market Project cited Henderson in December 2005 for misleading spin on inflation data.

     While the Free Market Project has also previously documented how energy prices did not reach “record” highs, Behravesh’s observation on the economy’s resilience stands in marked contrast to the media’s preference for negativism.