Maven: More GDP Follies

It could all be solved with just a soupcon of restraint from the business media. They can say right in the first line what is the basic truth: that first-reported number rarely stands and is often revised. They can then go easy on any definitive conclusions. And headline writers should take a chill pill.

How bad is this sort of reporting and how insistent are the business media on making the same lame mistake again and again? As harsh as The Business Press Maven has to be, I usually don't name names. I hate to see any of you in a field where you are publicly flogged -- by your own employer and others -- for your mistakes.

But this GDP thing is so needlessly bad and has been going on for so long that I finally caved. I went nuts. Call The Business Press Maven a bull, baited one time too many. I threatened to weave the names of reporters who wrote about the original fourth-quarter GDP report without mentioning the chance of a revision into a mocking limerick.

And, by golly, a few weeks ago I did it. Three journalists -- Jeremy Peters, Joanne Morrison and Jeannine Aversa -- all reported the 3.5 growth rate without any fair warning of revision and, with set conclusions spewing forth, were dealt the worst kind of blow. They were made subjects of The Business Press Maven's insulting limerick, perhaps the worst piece of poetry seen outside a bathroom wall.