SABEW’s First Amendment Committee is warning about threats to the nation’s statistical agencies and their ability to deliver timely, accurate reports on the economy. We also see troubling signs from China which has warned economists to deliver only upbeat reports.
On January 31, multiple news organizations reported pages missing from government web sites as agencies scrambled to comply with an executive order requiring the removal of gender information. The loss of data from Census, HHS and other agencies threatens accurate economic reporting.
Reporting in The New York Times on December 10 showed how a combination of outdated technology and human error caused reporting problems at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
On December 11, an article in Bloomberg News raised questions about whether the Trump Administration would invest the additional millions of dollars needed to work on improving data collection by the BLS, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and other agencies. It detailed the problem of falling response rates to government surveys as we become a more polarized society.
On December 21, The Wall Street Journal cited a recent article in a state-run journal in China that suggested private economists at brokerage firms refrain from criticizing government policy or making statements that could hurt investor confidence.
Taken together, these reports on the world’s two largest economies point to more problems for journalists and the public in getting timely, accurate reports on the economy. And the pressure on private economists in China to report only good news is a page from an authoritarian country’s playbook.
Statistical reports issued by government agencies are an invaluable source of data for the public, businesses of all sizes and the press. Earlier this year, we warned that without additional resources, the statistical agencies might not be able to deliver these reports in a timely way. SABEW joins with other journalism organizations in objecting to any loss of data that could jeopardize the public’s right to know.
The First Amendment Committee will be watching this issue carefully throughout 2025. We encourage our members to share their views and experiences using government data.
