Ron Paul Blogs

Over the past year we have blogged about media bias and a declining market share by traditional media. That includes newspaper and television outlets.

Here is a story of a good example of why people dont trust them. They dont understand how to report the topics they report on. I was on cnn business and saw this:

Is Sony income really down 95%

If you read this and was not a discerning mind, a busines degree holder, or just plain dont trust the media you might actually think that all of Sony had its income go down 95% in the third quarter 2008. Or all of their money went down 95%. There are already forums reporting this. I didnt believe it, took a screenshot and added the red underline under “net income”. The keyword is “net”

I checked the home page to see if there was more info. Here is the same headline again:

Cnn Front page makes media mistake

This is a good example that you should double check any fact. Think about it. Does it make sense at all? Is there any legitimate reason income would go down 95% in a company with some problems but also some good products and some industry leading items. So that term “net” what does that mean? It means the income that is left over after expenses are deducted. A better word would be “profit” Should CNN be reporting this story in this economy with the words “net income” or should they use the more familiar “profit”. People understand that word. Basically Sony still made a little money in the last fiscal quarter.

International Herald Tribune gets it right

They actually understand that ”profit” is more clear than “net income”. A 95% reduction in income would be disastrous. People might be thinking that is what happened. A 95% decline in profit just means they did not make money that fiscal quarter. Everyone know it was a bad holiday season. And the Yen is strong to the USA dollar so it is hard for them to make money in the US. But let’s try to get things right and not make a panic.