WSJ Reporter Ignores Kirzner as Potential Nobel Candidate But Suggests Bernanke

This is how the mainstream media works. As I reported, Austrian school economist Israel Kirzner was named as a Nobel Prize candidate by Thomson Reuters (SEE: Austrian School Economist Named as Possible Nobel Prize Recipient).

So how does Jon Hilsenrath at WSJ report the story of the potential candidates? This way:

Thomson Reuters, using academic citations, predicts Phillippe Aghion of Harvard University and Peter Howitt of Brown University will win the prize for work advancing thinking on the idea of “creative destruction.” Others names including William Baumol and Paul Romer of New York University, Jean Tirole of Toulouse School of Economics, and Robert Barro of Harvard are sure to make the rounds in the days ahead.

There was  no mention of Kirzner. Here is how Thomson Reuters actually reported the story:

 This year, noteworthy nominees on the Thomson Reuters list include... In economics, William J. Baumol and Israel M. Kirzner are noted for their advancement of the study of entrepreneurism.

Thomson Reuters then lists all these as potential recipients:

ECONOMIC SCIENCES
Philippe M. Aghion
Robert C. Waggoner Professor of Economics, Harvard University
Cambridge, MA USA

-and-

Peter W. Howitt
Lyn Crost Professor Emeritus of Social Sciences and Professor Emeritus of Economics, Brown University
Providence, RI USA

For contributions to Schumpeterian growth theory

William J. Baumol
Professor of Economics and Harold Price Professor of Entrepreneurship, New York University
New York, NY USA

-and-

Israel M. Kirzner
Emeritus Professor of Economics, New York University
New York, NY USA

For their advancement of the study of entrepreneurism

Mark S. Granovetter
Joan Butler Ford Professor and Chair of Sociology, and Joan Butler Ford Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University
Stanford, CA USA

For his pioneering research in economic sociology.

In no way is  Aghion singled out the way Hilsenrath suggests. As for Kirzner, he is listed as a potential joint recipient with Baumol, but Hilsenrath lists Baumol but not Kirzner.

Not only does he ignore Kirzner but he then goes out of his way to suggest that former Fed chairman Bernanke as a candidate.

Mr. Bernanke would get attention from the Swedes not for his work as Fed chairman from 2006 to 2014, but for an academic career that pre-dated his stint in government and mapped out links between the financial system and the economy, a subject of great importance today. 

Well, yeah it is of great importance today, but that's because of the crazy money manipulations of Ben Bernanke during his stint as Fed chairman. (SEE: The Fed Flunks: My Speech at the New York Federal Reserve Bank)

And that's how WSJ and mainstream media in general roll.

-RW