Maven: The Banality of 'Black Friday'

A liver regenerates ... and so does the misleading media coverage of the holiday shopping season. The Business Press Maven made easy work of the predictable way the woeful coverage played out during last holiday shopping season. But let's sum up and then look at how, in one newspaper, two articles appeared this week that say very different things about what investors can look for this year.

One took investors down the same old road; the other began to the process of pointing toward what is actually beginning to take place. They used a basic number differently.

First, let's try to force a serene smile as we review the old story line. For too long now, the retail industry has termed the day after Thanksgiving "Black Friday," because it is purportedly the day they (cross your fingers, hope to die) begin putting their books in the black.

The business media dutifully rounds up the low-totem pole reporters, those who have to bust their buns on holiday weekends but don't have much experience, and sends them out to malls. There, they too often use any line they run across as anecdotal evidence of widespread demand and if -- God willing -- some sort of pushing and shoving, especially during one of those midnight lines, breaks out, they write up the story as if holiday sales are going to be up by double digits.