Sometimes you have to wonder if the editors at the Press-Democrat even read their own paper. Here's a case in point. Last Friday the P-D's lead story by Noel Gallagherwas headlinedEconomic outlook brightens . Note: reporters don't write the headlines; editors do.
The headline was flabbergasting on several counts. First because the story really didn't say that. In fact, it noted that things are bad:
"The county's $18 billion economy still faces much slower than average growth in total output -- 1.6 percent in 2004, compared to a 3 percent average [RK-compared to what?] . In 2005, it should pick up to 2.7 percent growth, according to the forecast."That slow return to normal means layoffs, such as those announced Wednesday by medical-device maker Medtronic Inc., likely could continue through the first half of 2004, with hiring only starting to pick up in the second half, said Toby Tyler, a Petaluma economist who helped prepare the forecast."
So what we had was a prediction by two economists, who repeatedly used the absolute terms "will" when they should have said "should" or "might", suddenly transmogrified by the headline writer into absolute fact.
The headline was even more mind-boggling because just the day before we had two page one stories: Medtronic to cut hundreds of jobs, shift work overseas and the sidebar 1,760 Sonoma County jobs emigrate, written by the same Noel Gallagher who had the considerably brighter story with the cheerleading headline the following day.
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