It looks like Fox is trying to mislead its viewers on the unemployment rate. Again.
On Monday, Fox News displayed a chart illustrating changes to the unemployment rate during 2011:
Note how the 8.6 percent unemployment rate in November looks higher than March's 8.8 percent rate, and about the same as the 9 percent unemployment rate in October.
Here's how an honest chart of changes to the unemployment rate during 2011 looks:
The pattern of dishonesty is alarming.
A few weeks ago, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics first reported that the unemployment rate had dropped to 8.6 percent in November -- the lowest rate in more than 2 years -- a Fox News graphic rounded up to 9 percent. In 2010, Fox News aired a staggeringly misleading chart suggesting that 15 million jobs were lost in three months. Three months.
In 2009, Fox reportedly sent an email to staff announcing "zero tolerance for on-screen errors." The memohasn't stuck.
But Timmy told me I was doing a good job he winked at me.
From The Michigan Democratic Party:
Once Again Governor Takes His Eye off the Ball as Michigan’s Unemployment Climbs to 11.2%
LANSING – Governor Rick Snyder has once again ignored his promise to bring more jobs to Michigan. After a 2-month legislative vacation neither Governor Snyder nor the legislative Republicans have offered any jobs legislation, even as Michigan’s unemployment rate continues to climb and the number of jobs shrinks.
“The Governor needs to make jobs his top priority right now,” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer said. “We have a growing unemployment rate of 11.2 percent and the number of jobs is shrinking. When are the Governor and the Republicans going to focus on jobs? When are they going to start focusing on putting people back to work in this state?”
“Workers and families are hurting in Michigan,” added Brewer. “While President Obama addresses the need for jobs with the American Jobs Act, Snyder and the Republicans do nothing. It’s time to focus on improving our economy. President Obama has his eye on that goal. Why don’t Snyder and the Republicans?”
We noted earlier this week that Fox News aired a chart on unemployment data that fails the basic standards of graphic communication. Fox must have invested significant resources into the creation of the chart (indeed, it is a piece of work), because rather than let this outstanding display of incompetence pass quietly away, Fox aired the chart again on America's Newsroom yesterday (albeit with a revised title) and again today, on Fox & Friends:
That straight red line is lying to you. Fox distorted the scale of the horizontal and vertical axes and included only four data points, omitting any information from the 15-month period between March 2009 and June 2010. All that work just to falsely inform viewers that the unemployment trend has still not changed since the beginning of the recession.
As we noted, if you use an accurate scale and recreate Fox's chart with those same random data points, you get this:
And if you actually want to provide an accurate picture of how the unemployment level trend has changed since March 2009, you make a chart with 30 months of data over two-and-a-half years, rather than Fox's four, and you get this:
Fox & Friends' co-host Brian Kilmeade aired the chart this morning after asserting that the stimulus "doesn't seem to be helping." (Fortunately, there are economists out there whose methods of assessing the stimulus go beyond asking whether it "seems" to be helping. Unfortunately, Kilmeade doesn't know any of them)
Kilmeade said that since the stimulus "came out," the "unemployment numbers have gone up." He added, "Lets take a look at these figures ... I mean this has gone steadily up since it's been released."
From Media Matters Research
Right-wing media have highlighted April's increase in unemployment to attack President Obama's economic policies. But the monthly increase in payrolls was the largest in four years, and the unemployment uptick reportedly occurred "mainly because 805,000 jobseekers -- perhaps feeling better about their prospects -- resumed their searches for work."
Right-wing media rush to trumpet "key number" of 9.9 percent unemployment
Jim Hoft: "Unemployment jumps to 9.9%. ... How's that hopey-changey stuff treating you?" In a May 7 Gateway Pundit post, headlined "Unemployment jumps to 9.9%," blogger Jim Hoft wrote "how's that hopey-changey stuff treating you" and then quoted from an Associated Press article noting the increase in unemployment -- including their reporting that unemployment rose mainly because discouraged workers resumed their job searches.
Drudge: "Unemployment up to 9.9%" On May 7, the top post on the Drudge Report read "Unemployment up to 9.9%." The post linked to the AP article on the jobs numbers.
Doocy: Unemployment rate is "key number" and "not good news." On the May 7 edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy called the unemployment rate the "key number" and stated that it is "not good news":
DOOCY: Meanwhile, we're looking at the wires right now. The April unemployment rate just came out. It is at 9.9. That is up two-tenths from March. That is not good news. But 290,000 jobs were created last month. That's 90,000 more than the experts thought. Many more people are coming back into the job market than it can handle, just at the moment, some have felt. But the key number there, 9.9 unemployment.
Economists: "[A] strong report," "far more" jobs than expected
Economist: "This is unambiguously a strong report." The New York Times reported MF Global chief economist James O'Sullivan's statement that "This is unambiguously a strong report for growth implications. ... It adds to the evidence that the pickup in growth is leading to a clear-cut pickup in employment. It is very clear there has been a bounce here, and momentum has been up.' "
Reuters: Increase in jobs "far more than analysts had expected." A May 7 Reuters article reported that the "[a]nalysts polled by Reuters had expected nonfarm payrolls to rise 200,000," 90,000 less than reported:
Employers added 290,000 jobs in April, the Labor Department said on Friday, far more than analysts had expected. The department also revised figures for February and March to show 121,000 more jobs were added than previously thought.
The unemployment rate, however, rose to 9.9 percent as discouraged workers re-entered the labor force to look for work.
[...]
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected nonfarm payrolls to rise 200,000 last month and the jobless rate to remain unchanged at 9.7 percent.
The median forecast from the 20 most accurate forecasters was for a payrolls increase of 188,000.
Unemployment uptick reportedly due to previously discouraged workers resuming their search for work
AP: Unemployment increased "mainly because 805,000 jobseekers -- perhaps feeling better about their prospects -- resumed their searches for work." The May 7 Associated Press article linked to by Drudge and Hoft reported: "The unemployment rate rose from 9.7 percent in March to 9.9 percent in April, mainly because 805,000 jobseekers -- perhaps feeling better about their prospects -- resumed their searches for work."
Economist O'Sullivan: Unimployment increase "more than accounted for" by labor force surge." The Times reported O'Sullivan's statement, "Of course one of the headlines is that the unemployment rate rose, but the rise was more than accounted for by a surge in the labor force."
By contrast, other conservatives call the jobs report "good news"
WSJ's Moore: "It's mostly good news." On the May 7 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom, The Wall Street Journal's Steve Moore called the report "mostly good news," and "the largest gain we've seen in a month since 2006":
MOORE: It's mostly good news, Bill. I mean, this big jobs number, 300,000 or so jobs nearly, that's really good news, given how bad the numbers have been for the last couple of years. I think I saw this morning that this was the largest job gain we've seen in a month since 2006. So it does look like employers are finally starting to hire people. But let's not set aside the big number here, Bill. We still have one out of 10 Americans in the labor force who are not find a job.
Joe Scarborough: "[T]here is good economic news here." On the May 7 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough said that "there is good economic news" in the jobs report:
SCARBOROUGH: Mika, there is good economic news here, the fact that we've added more jobs than anytime in over four years. Sixty-six thousand of those jobs Census jobs, but 230,000 jobs -- new jobs in the private sector. But Pat Buchanan, as you and Sam Stein had predicted earlier before we got the news, the big problem here, the reason why -- the 9.9 percent number -- that's the headline, that's the political number, that has the impact. But that's because more Americans, 800,000 Americans, feel better about their job prospects and are actually looking for jobs for the first time in a long time.
Buchanan: "[T]his is almost unvarnished good news." Pat Buchanan responded to Scarborough by saying: "Sure, all those folks who are not only unemployed but quit looking for work, Joe, they're coming back in because they say 'Hey, folks are hiring.' I think this is almost unvarnished good news, the top number looks a little bad, 9.9, but you have 200 -- almost 300,000 more people at work. That's good news."
M.C.L Comment: This what gets me about these right wing hacks like that three dollar piss ant Matt Drudge anytime you dare to mention the unemployment rate and jobs being lost under Bush they would accuse you of talking down the "recovering" Bush economy. Hey Drudge you hat wearing douchebag I got a headline for ya "UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IS LOWER NOW THAN WHEN RONALD REAGAN WAS PRESIDENT". What these right wingers fear is that the economy is improving and it's improving months outside an election and they have one less thing to run against the Democrats.
