Ed Frank finds something amiss in today’s media environment when it comes to economic trends and analyses.  Frank notices that the media today seem willing and even eager to parrot the White House and Barack Obama in his sunny optimism, despite unemployment shooting up higher and faster than anytime in the last 70 years.  Back in 2003-4, when the American economy recovered from what looks in comparison to a speed bump, Frank recalls a much different media environment:

None of this comes as a shock to Hot Air readers, although the video nicely contrasts the coverage in a way that text comparisons don’t quite match. Richard Benedetto, meanwhile, sees media bias in another comparison — and this one much more timely:

Which is more newsworthy — the murder of an abortion doctor in Wichita, Kan., by an alleged anti-abortion activist or the murder of an Army recruiter and the wounding of another in Little Rock, Ark., by an alleged Muslim convert who is said to hate the U.S. military?

Most people not involved in news-placement decisions would probably say they were equally newsworthy. But those in the news media actually making those decisions had a different view.

Here’s how the media played the two stories:

• Murder of abortion doctor on Sunday — front-page news in most major newspapers and a lead story on network TV news shows on Sunday and Monday

• Murder of one Army recruiter and wounding of another on Monday — buried inside the same papers and newscasts on Tuesday

Why, it’s almost as if the media had a political agenda, isn’t it?