Media Bias -- That Didn't Take Long

I have a whole number of topics backlogged that I planned on writing about first. I know media bias would work its way in there--I can't help but follow the topic. However, it took only a couple of hours before I ran across something that I had to post about.

There was some good 2Q economic news released today, and the AP story covering it opened with this:

The economy shifted to a higher gear in the spring, growing at its fastest pace in nearly a year as foreign buyers snapped up U.S. exports and tax rebates spurred shoppers at home.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that gross domestic product, or GDP, increased at a 3.3 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter. The revised reading was much better than the government's initial estimate of a 1.9 percent pace and exceeded economists' expectations for a 2.7 percent growth rate.

A couple of hours later the headline of the story changed to "Spring's economic rebound unlikely to last" and the opening changed to:

The economy pulled out of a dangerous rough patch in the spring, thanks largely to strong exports, but the rebound isn't expected to last. Economic slowdowns overseas could make exports tail off just as Americans are hunkering down after the bracing impact of rebate checks wanes, plunging the country into another rut later this year.

"There will be heavy sledding for the U.S. economy during the next couple of quarters," predicted Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Bank of America's Investment Strategies Group.

Well isn't that interesting? I guess you can't have good economic news out there so you have to cover the actual news (an increase in GPD) with conjecture (the economy is going to be horrible). If the second part is news, I should be able to make a killing in the stock market come fall by selling short.

Hat tip: Wizbangblog.