It's not surprising that the mainstream media misses the story when it comes to manufacturing. This happened again when they reported on U.S. factory orders for May 2006.
Factory orders increased 0.7% for May 2006. This number exceeded the 0.1% increase analysts had projected. Where did the mainstream media go wrong in this good news? After reporting the gain, the media spent the majority of their time and space reporting how poorly durable goods manufacturing performed.