here's an insight into the state of our media today....

[spanone]

Evening news shows on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC - 1/1/14 - 3/31/14





REPORT: Weekday Broadcast And Cable Evening News Economic Coverage Lacks Context, Economists
Increased Coverage Of Inequality, Attacks On Obamacare And The Minimum Wage, And Voices Of Economists Barely Present
http://mediamatters.org/research/2014/04/07/report-weekday-broadcast-and-cable-evening-news/198777

[unblock]

1. i walked by our tv at work and they were featuring a "cnbc contributor"

which basically means "someone we decided to put on the air".

[immoderate]

2. Irrelevant. Ludwig Von Mises and John Maynard Keynes are economists.

The titles, degrees and labels do not indicate competence.

--imm

On edit: Should have said "were."

[spanone]

4. relevant to me. they indicate a certain amount of expertise in the field.

[immoderate]

5. More like "an uncertain amount." I got to interview Milton Friedman as an undergrad.

Ironically I considered him a hero at that time. I am not an economist, but I think I know things now that he didn't.

I'm not saying economists are bogus, but that whatever insights they might have could also be gleaned from historians, political scientists, sociologists, statisticians, and even journalists. This is "appeal to authority." And a red herring. Arguments a based on validity, not who makes them.

Do you apply different scrutiny to economic ideas proposed by economists as opposed to non-economists?

--imm

[JEFF9K]

3. Non-economists are much better than conservative economists!!!

Conservative economists gave us the Great Depression, the Near-Great Depression, and Reaganomics, where all gains go to the richest 1/1000th.