Betsy Newmark teaches civics at Raleigh Charter High School in Raleigh, North Carolina. In her blog today, she characterizes the Bush economy as the "worst ever" and then attributes that extreme description to those with whom she disagrees politically. It's a straw man tactic that Betsy deploys for the benefit of her blog's readers, which is fine, but let's hope she avoids the same tactic when instructing her students.

In truth, the Bush economy disproportionately benefits some individuals over others. From certain perspectives, the Bush economy is one of the healthiest in history. Which is to say that, like all complex systems, the economy supports multiple and even contradictory assessments.

Still, it's not the economy and its relative health that concerns Betsy. Rather, her interest lies in the public's perception of the economy. Betsy belittles the majority perception – which sees the economy as floundering – and endorses the conclusions of a 2004 report [pdf] published by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a think tank known for its strong partisan bias and close personal and philosophic ties with the Republican party and the Bush administration... Hardly the place to go for perception-neutral insight into how, in this case – by Betsy's argument – the media's take on economic news (1) varies with the political party in power, (2) drives public perception, and (3) obscures the gains made by Republican policy.

"Sadly," Betsy concludes, "such negative coverage affects people's perception of the country's economic situation and makes them today more pessimistic than many economists would suggest that they should be." It is a conclusion based on logical fallacy, think tank prejudice, and selective emphasis on particular slices of economic data, as well as by being refuted by the historic economic benefits of Democratic versus Republican administrations (see the footnote below).

•Why does Betsy rely on biased sources and arguments to deliver her patronizing judgment?

•Is Betsy unable to deploy information from neutral sources to support her position?

•Is Betsy at a loss to apply the principles she teaches her students for evaluating information?

•Does Betsy teach her students how to detect bias, fraud and an "axe to grind" in the information they read?

For whatever reason, Betsy's post is propagandic rather than informative.

FOOTNOTE: In the comments section, check out "cactus", who presents data supporting the majority's perception of the Bush economy's ill health; data that cast a large shadow over the AEI's and Betsy's conclusions.