Businesses use headlines to cover their butts; wire services enable them

(Reuters) - Electrolux's (ELUXb.ST) market for household appliances in Europe is suffering from a slowdown, which is spreading from the crisis-hit south to other markets, the chief executive of the Swedish company said on Monday. Keith McLoughlin told Reuters in an interview that it looked like the group, the second largest home appliances maker after U.S. market leader Whirlpool, (WHR.N) would come in at the bottom end of its 2012 forecast range of flat to minus two percent.

With all due respect to Electrolux, and we will admit to not knowing a whit about their business, why is it that the wire services trumpet some CEO's whining about why his company didn't hit its number as though it were the gospel truth? We're not that dumb out here. We know that one company's poor performance does not mean that the whole economy is going to you-know-where in a handbasket. So why, dear Reuters, do you make it seem that way? For every Electrolux, there have to be some other companies that are making money selling Electrolux-like widgets to the masses. Just because you are too lazy to go out and find them and report on what it is that they are doing does not make it right for you to shape public opinion on the economy based on one CEO who is pointing fingers everywhere but inside his own company.