As President Donald Trump continues to make claims on how great the economy is doing under him, it is important to fact check and compare his economic policies to other Presidents, like Obama. On the surface, people speculate that Trump is doing well. According to NPR, civilian unemployment rate has decreased, the average earnings of employees have increased, blue collar jobs have grown 3.3%, and business investments are up more than $300 billion. Many economists give credit to Donald Trump for how well off the economy is, however ‘when you hear how great the economy is doing right now, let’s just remember when this recovery started,’ former President Barack Obama stated. This brings up a valid point as many question if Donald Trump is simply “coasting on the momentum of an already strong Obama economy” or if Trump is turning things around. In the NPR article, Scott Horsley acknowledges a few opinions and reports it in a left-centered political standpoint and displays a “fairness bias” to a certain degree. Horsley concludes that although Donald Trump and his administration did make slight improvements to the economy, the economy has been following the “steady upward glide path that began under Obama.”
On the other hand, Fox News reports Donald Trump’s economic policies differently. Andy Puzder wants people to stop overlooking Trump’s strong economy and job growth. Puzder points to Trump reducing tax burdens and improving business freedom as reasons for the growing economy. Furthermore, the Trump administration points out that they have had a 3% GDP growth rate. The article then continuously acknowledges how low the unemployment rate is and how there are millions of new job openings. Fox News is known for it’s far right political stance and this article isn’t any different. Towards the end of the article, Puzder essentially glorifies Donald Trump, “In the first two years of the Trump presidency, we’ve gone from economic stagnation to economic boom. We are a freer people and a more prosperous nation with a rising economic tide that is lifting everyone’s boat. This is the power of capitalism, the most dynamic economic system mankind has ever known, when liberated from the restraints of oppressive government. Thank you, President Trump.”
After reading two articles that addressed Trump’s and Obama’s economy, it is quite clear that your perspective can be altered by the media outlet you choose to get your news from. According to Neil Postman, newspapers were better at avoiding biases than television news. The newspapers had many stories to choose from, in a sense, “everyone reads a different newspaper, for no two readers will read (or ignore) the same items.” However, at a time where newspapers have grown obsolete, many stick to one news media outlet, such as Fox News or New York Times and are blinded to other perspectives.
The Blue Feed Red Feed project is quite interesting since I could pick which issue to compare feeds, then the project would also provide a link to the actual articles. The way they collected data from Facebook over the course of six months was also interesting.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/andy-puzder-trumps-economy-has-taken-us-from-stagnation-to-boom-thats-a-story-that-needs-to-be-told
https://www.npr.org/2018/09/12/646708799/fact-check-who-gets-credit-for-the-booming-u-s-economy
I agree with your point about how newspapers becoming obsolete is causing readers to be blinded by sticking to one news media outlet. News outlets talk about the same things with different views, making your beliefs largely based on what outlet you stick to. Newspapers somewhat bypass that because they are limited to the space on the newspaper, making each newspaper different in the content seen. That helps to diversify what each reader sees.
I agree with Horsley because America’s economy has been recovering well during Obama’s presidency. There may be different results of unemployment rates and economy growth during Trump’s presidency if Obama had not helped America’s economy grow into what it is now.
News definitely point people into a certain direction and are powerful in contributing to how the readers may think. Newspapers also challenges the readers to think and take in different perspectives.