After Weak Jobs Report, Wires Obsess Over Obama Reelection Impact

May 5th, 2012 4:41 PM
To the extent that it was there at all, there was far too little emphasis in yesterday's wire service reporting on yesterday's OMG-awful jobs report (worse than most believe, as will be shown in a later post) was far less on those who continue to be affected -- like, say, the unemployed, under-employed and discouraged, who should be the object of such news stories -- and far too much…

AP's Wiseman Points to Obama Reelection Based on Dropping Unemployment

May 3rd, 2012 12:16 PM
Well, we can all stop thinking about the presidential election, because Barack Obama's victory is assured. This morning, Paul Wiseman at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, virtually celebrated analysts' predictions that the unemployment rate will drop a whole 0.3% between now and Election Day to 7.9%. But in searching desperately for a precedent, he claimed that a public…

AP Won't Let Go of 'Government Budget-Cutting' As Reason For Tepid Fir

April 30th, 2012 4:07 PM
On Friday evening, it was Christopher Rugaber and Paul Wiseman. Today it's Martin Crutsinger. Together with Derek Kravitz (who isn't in on the latest offense -- yet), perhaps the just-named quartet of alleged journalists should be named "The Four Distortsmen." Today, it was Crutsinger who, in the wake of a mediocre report on consumer spending, again invoked "government budget-cutting as the…

Per AP, Tepid GDP Growth Largely Due to Government 'Budget-Cuttting

April 28th, 2012 11:34 AM
In the first quarter of 2012, the federal government spent $966 billion. That's 10% more than the $877 billion spent during the previous quarter, and 2% more than the $949 spent during the first quarter of 2011. Yet the party line Friday evening from Christopher Rugaber and Paul Wiseman at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, is that economic growth in the first quarter,…

AP: Obama's Chances Improve in Ohio and Mich. Because of Him; No Menti

April 22nd, 2012 3:27 PM
It has become clear what the Obama campaign's strategy for trying to win states like Michigan and Ohio is and will continue to be. In three steps, it's as follows: 1) Pretend that the states' Republican governors, John Kasich in Ohio and Rick Snyder in Michigan, who both succeeded free-spending Democrats who presided over stagnant economies, have had nothing to do with their increased…

After Friday Optimism, AP's Wiseman Provides Five Reasons Future Job G

April 9th, 2012 11:48 PM
On Friday (covered at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), the Associated Press's headline at Paul Wiseman's dispatch after the release of the government's March jobs report was: "US job market takes a break after hiring binge." It was as if they just knew that March was an aberration, and that the "binging" would resume in April. The markets weren't as convinced today: "Investors had a three-day…

AP Headline After Disappointing March Jobs Report: 'US job market take

April 7th, 2012 12:46 PM
Did you know that the economy was on a "hiring binge" until February? Gosh, neither did I until the headline to Paul Wiseman's report at the Associated Press yesterday afternoon informed of that. I also didn't know that economies took breaks, but that's what the AP's headline said the economy did in March. And don't worry -- "few economists expect hiring to fizzle in spring and summer, as it…

AP's Wiseman Botches Math to Falsely Claim Past Four Months' Job Adds

April 6th, 2012 8:33 PM
It would seem that Paul Wiseman at the Associated Press had his copy prepared in advance for today's jobs report. The consensus was that today's report from Uncle Sam's Bureau of Labor Statistics would show that 200,000 seasonally adjusted jobs were added in March. So it was a virtual lock that today's result would mean that the past four months were the best for net hiring in the past two…

AP's Wiseman Weakly Spins 'Jobless Trend' and Not Jobless Rate as Pred

January 8th, 2012 10:46 AM
Even with recent "improvements" which are still weak when compared to other post-World War II recoveries and which, as shown yesterday (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), are less substantive than December's two major reported numbers (unemployment rate of 8.5% and seasonally adjusted job additions of 200,000) would indicate, it seems fairly likely that the nation's unemployment rate will be higher…

Why Yesterday's Jobs Numbers Don't Signify 'Gaining Steam' or a 'Surge

January 7th, 2012 10:43 AM
The headline New York Times (HT Clay Waters at NewsBusters) after yesterday's job report was: "U.S. Economy Gains Steam as 200,000 Jobs Are Added." At the Associated Press: "Nation adds 200,000 jobs in December hiring surge." Telling millions of news consumers that it's so doesn't make it so.

AP Econ Writers Fret Over No 'Stimulus,' Govt. 'Cutting at All Levels

August 3rd, 2011 9:33 PM
If we're to believe Paul Wiseman and David K. Randall at the Associated Press in their Wednesday afternoon report on the economy, all of the alleged solutions which might shake the U.S. economy out of its weakness either aren't available or no one has the will to try them: stimulus, infrastructure projects, jobs programs, or another round of quantitative easing. Oh, and governments are damaging…

GDP Media Coverage, Part 3: AP Pair Pins Prime Blame on Gas Prices, Fi

July 30th, 2011 9:31 PM
The AP's coverage of the U.S. economy late Friday focused on high gas prices as the dominant, uh, driver of this year's anemic growth both visually and in its text. As will be seen after the jump, the graphic at the AP's national site is of a gas price sign. The final sentence in the caption of the full-size version reads "High gas prices and scant income gains forced Americans to sharply…

AP Biz Writer on Good Stocks to Buy: 'One Good Bet: The Jobless Aren't

July 9th, 2011 8:46 PM
While Associated Press Economics writers like Christopher Rugaber and Paul Wiseman, as seen in a post this morning (at NewBusters; at BizzyBlog), talk of "baffled economists" and a job market that is "defying history," one AP writer, in discussing stocks which have done well in this economy, has revealed what employment prospects really are with quite un-baffling certainty from the point of…

AP: Economists, Analysts, and Experts Are 'Baffled,' 'Confounded' By J

July 9th, 2011 11:10 AM
If we are believe two late Friday afternoon dispatches from the Associated Press following the government's awful Employment Situation report earlier in the day, you would think that even a cadre of cops with the talent of Sherlock Holmes couldn't solve the mystery of the underperforming job market. Economics Writers Christopher Rugaber and Paul Wiseman went with themes of "baffled economists…