The media loves to take a positive and offset it with a negative. For example, they will say something like "unemployment is down .2% this month" and quickly follow with "that is the worst decrease in employment in December in 20 years". It is better to follow a positive comment with an offsetting visual. Instead of the "worst ...." shtick, they will do a quick story on some suffering victim who is unemployed and has been for a year or two or is seriously underemployed. Sometimes their choices of victims is hilarious. After a nice positive comment about the economy improving NBC ran their offsetting story about a guy who had worked as an engineer or something but now, after being unemployed for a year, had to deliver pizzas to make a buck. Sad story (the tearing-up by the guy was a nice visual) except that he was delivering the pizzas in what looked like a brand new PT Cruiser and he had 3 other cars parked in his driveway of his comfortable looking house. If you are one step away from the soup kitchen why does every member of the family have a car? How can they afford a new car? NBC must be hard pressed to find real, good quality victims.