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Comment by NeverFade | Hacker News Reader

In the US, the NBER is the institution that calls recessions. The NBER has never once failed to call two consecutive quarters of negative growth as a recession. It's a foregone conclusion at this point.

But wait, according to the mainstream media now, we shouldn't listen to the NBER either, they're all just a bunch of "white economists":

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/30/economy/recession-economists-...

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CNN headline: Who decides if the US is in a recession? Eight White economists you've never heard of

Is this a joke? It's like something you'd overhear at brunch from a group of co-eds

Now recessions are racists then?

That wouldn't be the implication of a title like that and I suspect you know you're being disingenuous. It would mean that some of our most important decisions are being made by people from a single background that doesn't reflect the makeup of their stakeholders, the American public.

As a thought exercise, would you think it's not notable if the 8 person board was entirely female .. or entirely black?

I would absolutely think it was notable because if I saw “Women Economists” or “Black Economists” I would obviously be concerned the women or black economists are being treated badly.

It’s shocking that you somehow think race or gender can effect the categorization by economists of economic conditions. It’s fairly quantitative situation and I’m at a loss how different backgrounds would effect that analysis.

I mean in your mind ... if all the economists you saw in leadership positions in the US were black I suspect you would think that's notable. That was the thought exercise I was asking you to do.

Black unemployment vs White?

Would a black economist measure black unemployment or white unemployment differently?

>Now recessions are racists then?

Everything else is, so why not?

CNN in January 2020: "Coronavirus task force another example of Trump administration's lack of diversity" <https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/30/politics/donald-trump-coronav...>

It reads like racism to me.

Was that actually the headline before?

The title I get is the same minus the "white". I wonder if it's A/B testing.

https://imgur.com/a/yW4IXum

I took a screenshot as I had a hunch it would be changed once enough people saw it.

Edit: shows up without the “White” also for me now:

https://imgur.com/a/84X6RKj

I also saw the original headline that said:

> Who decides if the US is in a recession. Eight White economists you've never heard of.

I mean, CNN is basically the left version of Fox News, it’s not representative of center media.

It's closer to the center than the other major news network, MSNBC.

I upvoted you because downvoting to disagree is dumb, but I disagree, CNN is totally way far left.

CNN is indeed way far left. But there are three major news networks - Fox, CNN and MSNBC. Of those, Fox is pretty far right, CNN is far left, and MSNBC is farther left than CNN.

https://adfontesmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Media-B...

Do you have an example of "center media"? Asking because I earnestly want some of that.

The Financial Times is relatively centrist in their coverage.

I usually just read the AP or Reuters. FiveThirtyEight is definitely liberal but I appreciate their numbers perspective as well.

Here's a couple media bias charts. https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/media-literacy/2021/sh...

Like other commenter said, AP and Reuters are best at being center / neutral for now.

That's not really a fair comparison. CNN sometimes plays up controversy for eyeballs, but Fox is an outright manipulator. Tucker Carlson is touting fascism and Sean Hannity was literally taking phone calls from the Oval Office asking what they wanted him to say on air. They are also being sued for libel for promoting baseless election fraud conspiracy theories. Saying they're equivalent is like saying a pigeon is like a squid because they both have a beak.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/jul/04/fox-oan-newsma... https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/29/politics/hannity-text-message... https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/08/tucker-carlson-has-s...

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