MEDIA WERE THE REAL CHRISTMAS GRINCH

Dave Kopel writes that “Despite the gloomy headlines and tone of these stories, the facts from the articles told another story“:

Christmas sales set an all-time record, up 1.5 percent from last year’s best-ever sales. The increase in sales was the lowest in 30 years, but a small increase from a record high is still a new record high.

Since inflation was about 2 percent, the population is slightly larger and the number of post-Thanksgiving shopping days fewer in 2002 than in 2001, an accurate headline and article might have said “Christmas sales stable,” instead of the overly gloomy picture painted by most of the media.

InstaPundit agrees (or more accurately, Kopel agrees with InstaPundit–since InstaPundit’s post is dated… the day after Christmas).