CNN Schizophrenic on Job Numbers

March 9th, 2007 1:50 PM

Perhaps Janus, the two-faced god of Roman mythology, should be the CNN mascot because the network was certainly double-minded today on employment.

"American Morning's" Ali Velshi called the report "good news" while CNN.com called the same data "weakest in 2 years" on March 9.

"Four-point-five percent as a national unemployment rate is good news for workers because it means more demand for workers and they can demand higher wages," Velshi said.

In contrast, CNN.com reported:

"The gain of 97,000 was the smallest since January 2005, weaker than even the final readings in the two months after Hurricane Katrina that fall."

Talk about a downer. The other main difference between the reports was coverage of upward revisions to December and January figures. CNN.com reported the January revision, but left out December, while Velshi left out the revisions altogether.