June 27, 2006
From the desk of Jane Galt:Funny journalistic moment of the day
I'm working up a story on the Federal Reserve, and came across this bit from some web outlet called "All Headline News":
According to CBS, the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's interest-rate setting body, raised its key short-term interest rate for the sixteenth time in a row to 5 percent at its May 10 meeting.
Now, of course, it is standard to attribute facts to the journalistic outlet that uncovered them, particularly if they can't be checked independantly. But this was not exactly an amazing journalistic coup by CBS; the Federal Reserve publishes its rate-setting decisions as soon as the meeting is over. Which All Headline News could have found out by visiting the website, and clicking the link titled "monetary policy". That's where they store the May statement.
Posted by Jane Galt at June 27, 2006 02:49 PM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound linksI'm just wondering what happened the other 15 times - why didn't the rate increase stick?
Posted by: Anthony on June 28, 2006 12:16 AMUm, Jane, that was not what was bad about the story. What was bad about the story is that they actually cut the interest rate because inflation is increasing at considerably more than a quarter of a point.
Posted by: wkwillis on June 28, 2006 01:20 AMUm, Jane, that was not what was bad about the story.
Disagree. It shows how readily (and sloppily) media sources will rely on third-hand sourcing, even when the original source is readily available.
Posted by: anony-mouse on June 28, 2006 03:13 AMThe nitpicky pedants among us fed-nerds will note that the fed did not, actually, "raise its key short term interest rate"; it raised it's target for the fed funds rate, which is the rate which banks charge each other for overnight loans. Saying it raised "its" rate implies it is the one doing the loaning...
Posted by: jimbo on June 28, 2006 10:28 AMPerhaps "According to CBS" is code that means "you really needn't believe this, folks"?
Posted by: dearieme on June 28, 2006 12:40 PMdearieme, you just have to learn the proper spelling of the name: See BS
Posted by: markm on June 28, 2006 04:57 PMI see this in academia all the time. It bothers me, too. If it's a fact, it's a fact. You shouldn't have to cite the founder of gravity, etc. It's common knowledge where the information came from.
Posted by: Taylor on June 28, 2006 07:07 PMComments are Closed.