Have you heard? The country is facing recession! Ack! Ack! The sky is falling! Check out the blaring headlines and listen to the news stories!

Bleh.

Why is it when the people who study these things ask people in the US about their opinion of the economy, many people say that we are facing economic downturn BUT when asked about their own personal finances, things are peachy keen jelly bean? Seriously, I was reading up on this phenomenon recently. People are worried for the economy in record numbers, going back to 1993 rates. However, the same people's personal finances are doing just fine and they are not facing any issues in their work or housing. Where is the economic downturn? Where? The media talks about it constantly, but if things are as bad as they are saying, more people in the US should be seeing more difficulty in personal finances.

The media has a lot to answer for. Sensationalism and hype have replaced accurate recording of facts. News morphed into news and commentary which morphed into commentary with a little bit of news tacked on.

I am sick of it.

Between TV, radio, internet, newspapers and magazines, people can mainline news all day long. The glut leads the news anchors to talk, talk, talk, crossing the line from reporting to commentating. Turn it off. My request for the media: Get back to straight news in reasonable amounts. Turn off the live news feeds, figure out what the actual story is before reporting on it. Relearn to the fundamentals of journalism and apply them.