Electionomics
Business & Media Institute

Media Love New Job Numbers, Still Criticize Previous Ones

Dan Gainor
Director, Business & Media Institute

     It took a month where job creation nearly doubled what was expected for the media to give President Bush good press on jobs. Even then, journalists are still criticizing summer numbers as they did during our study, “One Economy, Two Spins.”

     The monthly job creation numbers were a resounding success for President Bush with 337,000 new jobs created for the month of October. Though the media treated them positively, they still continued to be critical of the economy despite low unemployment and 14 straight months of positive job creation.

     The latest comments follow a media trend cited in the Business & Media Institute study, “One Economy, Two Spins” that showed much more positive media coverage for President Clinton than for President Bush during similar economic circumstances. While the reports about the latest numbers were generally upbeat, the media continued to hammer Bush’s jobs record for the summer as “dismal” and ignore the job losses that came as a result of the 9/11attacks.

     ABC’s World News Tonight both criticized the summer numbers and was reluctant to give Bush credit for the latest increase. Anchor Peter Jennings introduced the segment by ignoring the 13 previous months of positive job creation. Jennings said: “The Bush administration waited for a long time to get some encouraging news about the economy.” He added: “So after a dismal few months there is finally reassuring news for many Americans.”

     During those “dismal” summer months, “payroll employment rose by 103,000 on average” according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and that ignored a correction of 236,000 jobs added to the Bush record in the September report.

     Reporter Betsy Stark ended her part of the segment with, “The White House, which suffered through disappointing job reports this summer, had no need to massage the numbers today.”

     Stark was also unwilling to give Bush any credit for the increase in jobs. After Jennings said, “The president will undoubtedly say tax cuts,” Stark responded: “That his policies worked. And I think as a rule, presidents get both more blame and more credit than they deserve when it comes to creating jobs, but the lesson of today is that presidents don’t create jobs, businesses do.”

     Unless, of course, presidents get tax cuts passed so that the economy improves and jobs are created.

     CBS Evening News played it straight with a positive report about the job growth, but in a follow-up story about possible tax changes, reporter Lee Cowan took a dig at the current state of the economy. Following an upbeat introduction from anchor Dan Rather, reporter Anthony Mason summed up the initial story with this: “The economy, after losing momentum this summer as oil prices surged, seems to be refueling. “

     It appeared Cowan hadn’t been watching the news when working on his follow-up piece about taxes, ending it with: “In the midst of a rising deficit, an unsure economy and a costly war, tax reform may well be a White House priority, but difficult, some say, to make it a lasting legacy. “ Clearly, even at CBS, they think the economy is doing well, and is not “unsure.”

     NBC Nightly News deserves credit for delivering a fair report on the huge increase in job creation. Anchor Tom Brokaw even went so far as to explain the modest increase in unemployment came “because more discouraged job seekers went back into the labor market looking for more work. But overall, economists were pleasantly surprised by the job numbers…”

     On CNN’s NewsNight with Aaron Brown, host Brown gave the huge improvement in jobs only a few short seconds to make up time so they could get to the breaking news of “The world championships of rock paper and scissors.”

     No, that wasn’t a joke.

     The New York Times led their report in a fairly positive fashion saying “The labor market snapped out from its summer lull to add 337,000 new jobs in October.” Unfortunately, reporter Eduardo Porter spoiled it with his second paragraph: “Economists cautioned, however, that a one-month gain did not constitute a trend, since the economy has recorded encouraging spurts of job growth before that have just fizzled out in subsequent months.”

     Porter is right, one month is not a trend. However, fourteen straight months of job creation is one heck of a trend.

     Porter did credit some of the questions about the economy to Jared Bernstein “an economist at the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute in Washington.” While it is a good step to include the group’s political perspective, he didn’t include comments from Bush Treasury Secretary John W. Snow until the eleventh paragraph.

     While The Washington Post story was generally balanced, it did resurrect the Democratic talking point comparing Bush job losses to Herbert Hoover. Reporter Nell Henderson added that, “If the average pace of job growth continues through the end of the year, that deficit would be erased by the second inauguration, in January.”