News vs. propaganda

Watch for a divergence this year between business reporting and political reporting.

The "Business Day" page of this morning's New York Times website reports, "The stock market closed mixed Friday, after the government reported that economic growth was slower at the end of last year than economists expected."

But the highlighted NYT Quotation of the Day was "All in all its not bad, but there's no oomph." The attached explanation: "Jay Feldman, an economist at Credit Suisse, on news of better-than-expected growth in the U.S. economy for the last quarter of 2011."

Slower than expected or better than expected: Which is it? The key is in the lead of the NYT's top story, "Growth Accelerates, but U.S. Has Lots of Ground to Make Up." Reporter Catherine Rampell declared that economic growth "is critical to millions of Americans out of work-and perhaps President Obama's reelection chances."

No perhaps about it. If unemployment soars, the dismal economic record of the first three Obama years continues, and the GOP nominates Mitt Romney, the nation turns its lonely eyes to the technocrat. If the economic news is good, swing voters' memories will be short.

Watch typical front pages for propaganda. Watch business pages for reality.