> I suspect it's more a reflection of the anxieties of the public in journalists than anything sinister.

To the extent there is a media response to popular perception involved, its very sifferent than that, nearly the opposite (the journalistic class frustrated at the lack of anxiety in the public), which is why it has increased in shrillness with the positive turn in the future expectations component of sentiment (and why you had to dig into the numbers to find that the “low sentiment” on the economy being flogged before that by journalists as an indicator of negative perception of current conditions was actually all in the future expectations component, with the current situation component being quite positive even when the overall measure was down.)

It’s like the announcers at a tight rope walk, NASCAR race or hockey game. The interest is driven in part by the danger, the threat of a fall, crash or fight. The fundamentals of the activity are beyond most of the audience’s comprehension and spelling it out would be hopelessly dull for people who already know and the people who aren’t interested enough to have learned about the activity before hand.

“Holiday Sales Figures Mostly Unchanged” is not a clickable headline. The paper boys would fall asleep before they shout “read all about it.”