Oct 312008
 

We all knew that the Wall Street Journal was not going to be improved by the Rupert Murdoch takeover, but did anyone foresee that it would come to this? Yesterday’s lead headline: “Fed Steps Up Assault on Slump.”

What kind of headline is that? It uses emotionally loaded terms, but imparts no information. You have to read further to learn that what happened is that the Fed cut interest rates. Whether that rate cut constitutes an “assault” on anything might be for poets and rhetoriticians to decide. But I’ll bet the Federal Reserve Board didn’t get together in a board room and do like this:

“We have a motion and a second to assault the slump. All in favor? All opposed? OK, motion carried. Let the minutes show that we voted 5-2 to assault the slump.”