When bad news turns good

Ok perhaps I'm just being a little cynical now, but I have to wonder what happened in the space of 45 minutes last Friday morning in the US that caused a complete about face from the mainstream media outlets.

The first headlines on the websites of the major news outlets, (and no I won't name names) were "Economy sheds 131,000 jobs".

However less than 45 minutes later, after the dow had plunged 160 points, the original negative headlines disappeared and the stories re-written with the headline "US Companies add 71,000 jobs".

I'm not saying the new headline is incorrect, as technically it's not. The truth is that Private employment was up 71,000 in July, but it's hardly representative of what happened with employment overall in the United States during the month of July.

Talk about torturing the numbers!