Big Media's Bad News Bears Misuse Data To Score Points.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(NATIONAL ISSUE)

Byline: ALAN REYNOLDS

It is a familiar complaint that newspapers report only the bad news. That applies to economic news, too -- particularly with a presidential year coming up.

By all objective indicators, the news about the American economy has been remarkably good since the summer. But what is good news for ordinary people can be bad news for politicians, just as good health is bad news for morticians.

For some strange reason, recent Democratic candidates have been looking for the dark cloud behind every silver lining.

They seem to think voters always want to hear that the U.S. economy is fundamentally rotten and brutally unfair, creating conditions that can only be remedied by making even more people even more dependent on taxes extracted from someone else.

This has created a demand The New York Times has long been eager to fill by making up new facts.

Loyal Lou Uchitelle took up this task once again with "A Recovery For Profits, But Not For Workers."

"Profits, it turns …