President Joe Biden's recession denial — along with the changing of the longstanding definition being two consecutive quarters of negative U.S. gross domestic product — is getting backed up by the mainstream media — but not without blowback from conservatives.
Conservative journalist Mollie Hemingway described the latest media spin in a tweet as "soviet-style journalism."
Biden administration officials, including the president himself and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, have denied for months the U.S. would be headed into an economic recession under their direction. Then, The Associated Press wrote an "explainer" Wednesday, attempting to say the "long-held" definition of a recession does not "count."
Enter Facebook fact-checkers, who have reportedly started to attack posts announcing Thursday's data that has long-defined a recession.
"We live in an Orwellian hell-scape," economic historian Phil Magness tweeted Thursday. "Facebook is now 'fact checking' anyone who questions the White House's word-games about the definition of a recession."
Even Wikipedia, the modern-day online encyclopedia, was forced to pause edits on its "recession" page until early August because the page was edited 41 times to revise the definition amid the Biden administration denials in recent weeks that back-to-back quarters of negative growth would define a recession, the Daily Wire reported.
Biden's latest move, in the wake of Thursday's report of negative-0.9% growth in the second quarter, is to say unemployment is too low to call his back-to-back negative growth quarters a recession.
"That doesn't sound like a recession to me," Biden told reporters at the White House.
Wikipedia and the AP agree.
"By one common definition — the economy shrinking for consecutive quarters — the U.S. economy is on the cusp of a recession. Yet that definition isn't the one that counts," AP tweeted Wednesday.
Former Trump administration FCC Chair Ajit Pai tweeted his rebuke, mocking the changing of the way a football game's winner is determined.
"By one common definition — the team scoring more points than its opponent wins the game — Super Bowl LVI resulted in the Los Angeles Rams beating the Cincinnati Bengals; yet that definition isn't the one that counts," Pai wrote, excoriating the AP.
Newsmax's "Spicer & Co." host Sean Spicer called out the revisionism coming from Biden's economic advisers denying a recession.
"Throwback quote of the day: Brian Deese, Director of the White House National Economic Council 2008 'of course economists have a technical definition of recession, which is two consecutive quarters of negative growth' #itsarecession #recession #recession2022," Spicer tweeted.
It's not the first time the mainstream media has sided with Biden spin.
"The press is too busy carrying Joe Biden's water to recognize the harm his policies have had on our economy," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tweeted. "Texans see right through this spin when they pay dearly at the pump & grocery store."
Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, suggested the AP recession denial was bad math after the data showed the back-to-back declining quarters.
"Just say 2+2=5," he tweeted.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., claimed the AP is privy to White House talking points memos.
"The White House released their talking points and the media dutifully reprinted," he tweeted.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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