Unemployment

AP Sells the New Normal: 5.9 Percent Unemployed Almost 'Consistent With a Healthy Economy'
By Tom Blumer | October 4, 2014 | 7:04 PM EDT

Yesterday's news that the economy added 248,000 payroll jobs, while the official unemployment rate dropped to 5.9 percent, generated the expected hosannahs from much of the establishment press.

One utterly predictable such writeup came from the Associated Press. The headline at Christopher Rugaber's report, "SURGE OF HIRING CUTS US JOBLESS RATE TO 5.9 PCT," utterly ignored the fact that much of the 0.2-point drop was attributable to 97,000 Americans leaving the workforce (the official rate would not have changed at all from August if a still-unacceptable 100,000 people had instead entered the workforce). The most troubling aspect of Rugaber's dispatch was how he shielded the Federal Reserve and left-dominated economics community from its relatively recent irresponsible decision to accept an unacceptable benchmark as the best the economy can do.

PBS Promotes Obama's Claim Country Has Improved ‘By Every Economic Measure’; Lou Dobbs Proves Otherwise
By Curtis Houck | October 2, 2014 | 10:43 PM EDT

Following President Obama’s speech on the economy on Thursday, the PBS NewsHour offered a 48-second news brief on the subject, in which co-anchor Gwen Ifill offered no opposing viewpoint to the President’s claim in his speech that “by every measure, the country is better off than when he took office.”

The show then played a soundbite of the President, in which he lamented that “millions of Americans don't yet feel enough of the benefits of a growing economy where it matters most, and that’s in their own lives and these truths aren't incompatible. Our broader economy, in the aggregate, has come a long way, but the gains of recovery are not yet broadly shared.”

Ron Fournier Summarizes Obama's 60 Minutes Interview: 'I, Me, My, It's Their Fault'
By Tom Blumer | September 28, 2014 | 11:10 PM EDT

National Journal’s Ron Fournier was apparently among those who endured President Obama's appearance on "60 Minutes" this evening.

Fournier was able to succinctly summarize the contents of Obama's interview with Steve Kroft, the network's designated softball pitcher, in a tweet appearing shortly after its conclusion (HT Twitchy):

DNC Chair Also Used 'Back of the Hand' Barb Last Month on Fla. Gov. Rick Scott
By Tom Blumer | September 26, 2014 | 11:30 PM EDT

Debbie has been caught doing it again.

Early this month, Democratic National Committe Chairmwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz went after Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, claiming that he "has given women the back of his hand," and that "Republican tea party extremists like Scott Walker are ... grabbing us by the hair and pulling us back." I wrote at the time that Wasserman-Schultz's supposed "walkback" was not genuine. The Washington Free Beacon has corroborated that suspicion, reporting, with video support seen after the jump, that the Badger State incident was not the first time she used the language of domestic violence to smear a Republican officeholder:

Press Ignores Errors, Inaccuracies in Burke's Plagiarized 'Jobs Plan'
By Tom Blumer | September 20, 2014 | 9:37 PM EDT

The real problem with Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke's "jobs plan," the detailed version of which appears to be no longer available at her campaign's web site, isn't its plagiarized material. It's the content. The presence of certain obviously wrong facts and patently pathetic assertions indicates that Ms. Burke, a successful entrepreneur who one would think should have known better, hardly scrutinized her plan at all before allowing its publication.

Thursday evening, BuzzFeed reported that "Large portions of Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke’s jobs plan (saved separately by BuzzFeed — Ed.) for Wisconsin appear to be copied directly from the plans of three Democratic candidates who ran for governor in previous election cycles." As would be expected, the Associated Press's Scott Bauer attempted to come to the rescue, finding an "elections expert" who said that "it's not really plagiarism because the person working for her did it." But Bauer also noted that Burke "has no plans to change the material, which she called a small part of the 40-page plan," so criticism of its content remains fair game.

CNN Promotes Rolling Stone's Tribute to 'Still Fighting' Occupy Wall Street
By Matthew Balan | September 19, 2014 | 4:59 PM EDT

CNN's Twitter account on Thursday boosted a Rolling Stone article that hyped the far-left Occupy Wall Street movement's latest efforts. The social media post touted, "Think #OccupyWallStreet is dead? Think again. This short-lived occupation is still fighting for five key issues," and linked to Rebecca Nathanson's Wednesday piece on the "five campaigns that OWS-inspired groups have continued to fight for since the movement's presumed conclusion."

CNBC's Mangan Spins Bad-News Obamacare Poll Into 'Obama-Who-Cares'
By Tom Blumer | September 9, 2014 | 4:13 PM EDT

CNBC's Dan Mangan, last seen at NewsBusters claiming that the American people want politicians to just "shut up about Obamacare," is out with a column today reacting to the Kaiser Family Foundation's latest Affordable Care Act-related polling effort.

Sarah Ferris at the Hill also reviewed the poll, and has two primary messages for readers. First, "support for ObamaCare continues to fall." Second, "Healthcare remains one of the most important issues in midterm elections, ranking only behind the economy and jobs as voters’ top issue." To be clear "the economy and jobs" is considered one issue. So it's really pathetic how Mangan twisted the same poll Ferris covered (bolds are mine):

AP: 'Job Market Has Improved by Pretty Much Every Gauge Except Pay'
By Tom Blumer | September 8, 2014 | 10:21 PM EDT

The Obama administration-prepared koolaid delivered to the Associated Press's economics writers on Monday must have been extraordinarily concentrated.

How else can you explain how the AP's Christopher Rugaber could have written the following — "The U.S. job market has steadily improved by pretty much every gauge except ... Pay" — without doubling over with laughter? No, Chris. The reason pay hasn't improved is because a whole lot of other "gauges" aren't where they should be.

Howler of the Night From Politico: Charlie Crist As a Former 'Rock-Ribbed Conservative'
By Tom Blumer | August 26, 2014 | 11:45 PM EDT

Former Florida Republican Governor Charlie won the state's Democratic gubernatorial primary tonight.

In his writeup on Crist's defeat of an overmatched challenger, the Politico's James Hohmann wrote that "Only four years ago Crist was a governor who had run for office as a rock-ribbed conservative." That wording is a bit too clever. One might argue that Hohmann is merely claiming that Crist ran as a "conservative" in 2006 on the coattails Jeb Bush's successful and largely conservative previous eight years as Florida's governor. But Crist certainly didn't flaunt the label, and by mid-2007 it was obvious that he was governing as a "Schwarzenegger-style Republican moderate" — making it clear that any campaign claim to being genuinely conservative was a false front. Excerpts follow the jump (bolds are mine):

The New York Times Has Zero Idea How the Internet Works - Or Is Lying Its Masthead Off
By Seton Motley | August 18, 2014 | 8:52 AM EDT

It takes a special man to cram so much wrong into a mere 342 words.  Or an Old Grey Lady.

The New York Times’ utterly ridiculous Editorial Board recently as one addressed Title II Internet regulatory Reclassification and Network Neutrality - and they did so in utterly ridiculous fashion. 

They either have absolutely no idea what any of this is - or they are lying through their printing presses.

Retail Sales Flatlined in July; AP Deadpans That Americans With No Money 'Are Hesitant to Spend'
By Tom Blumer | August 13, 2014 | 1:46 PM EDT

This morning, the Census Bureau, in its advance report on retail sales, revealed that seasonally adjusted July sales were "virtually unchanged" from June. Expectations were for a 0.2 percent gain, supposedly with "solid upside" potential. Oops. June's result stayed at its previously reported 0.2 percent increase.

Reuters did the "U-word" honors this time out: "U.S. retail sales unexpectedly stalled in July, pointing to some loss of momentum in the economy early in the third quarter." Someone needs to tell the wire service's Lucia Mutikani that no increase means no momentum. Over at the Associated Press, Josh Boak tried the deadpan approach.

Milbank: Obama More Passionate About Playing Golf Than Pushing His Agenda
By Mark Finkelstein | August 13, 2014 | 9:37 AM EDT

President Obama is more "forceful" and "stubborn" about playing golf than he is about pushing through his policy agenda.  That was Dana Milbank's take on today's Morning Joe.  

As Joe Scarborough described it, earlier this week the normally left-leaning Milbank enjoyed a "12-minute honeymoon" with conservatives after his Washington Post column called Obama's decision to go golfing while the world burned an example of "tone deafness" if not outright "stupid stuff."  Milbank doubled down on the notion today with his suggestion that the president cares more about making it to the first tee than enacting his policy positions.  Milbank seemed frustrated with Obama's fecklessness. But if the president's love of the links keeps him from pushing his policies, conservatives should be saying "play on, Mr. President!"  View the video after the jump.