The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
CNBC’s Burnett explains why January jobs number doesn’t mean economy is bad; BusinessWeek searches for flaws in free trade; ‘GMA’ host Robin Roberts serves up softballs for Hillary Clinton.

February 06, 2008

The Good

     "January Jobs Number: Beware! It Might Not Be True," the caption read at the bottom of the screen on CNBC's February 1 "Street Signs."

     The number of payroll jobs declined for the first time in more than four years on February 1, but "Street Signs" host Erin Burnett explained, this jobs report might not be as bad as it has been reported elsewhere – like the story posted on CBSNews.com – "U.S. Economy Suffers Another Body Blow."

     "[T]here's a system out there where basically what happens is the government makes some assumptions about how many jobs are created or lost every month," Burnett explained. "How many businesses are created – they can't check it every single month, so they have to make some assumptions. It turns out if you look out over history they always do the ‘businesses dying estimate' in the month of January – as a matter of fact, always in the month of January."

     According to the U.S. Labor Department, payroll jobs fell by 17,000 in January after an 82,000 gain in December. But January is traditionally a disappointment. Burnett pointed to historical data to demonstrate this trend.

     "Last year [2007] they assumed 193,000 jobs were lost in January," Burnett said. "The year before [2006] - 280,000. The year before [2005] 321,000. The year before [2004] 211,000. Now, it just puts today's number in context since we did see an unexpected drop in jobs, the first overall drop that this economy had registered in four-and-a-half years."

The Bad

     It’s this type of reporting that would make Lou Dobbs proud.

     An article that appeared in the February 11 issue of BusinessWeek, "Economists Rethink Free Trade" by Washington Bureau Chief Jane Sasseen, ignored the benefits of free trade and the consequences of enacting anti-free trade policies.

     "Yet concern is rising that the gains from free trade may increasingly be going to a small group at the top," Sasseen wrote. "For the vast majority of Americans, Dartmouth's [Matthew J.] Slaughter points out, income growth has all but disappeared in recent years. And it's not just the low-skilled who are getting slammed."

     Sasseen referred to an article co-written by Slaughter in the July/August 2007 issue of Foreign Affairs. What's Slaughter's plan to combat the crisis? Slaughter sees "a need for some form of income redistribution to spread the gains from free trade to more workers."

     "In a controversial article Slaughter co-wrote last summer for Foreign Affairs, he proposed ‘A New Deal for Globalization' in which payroll taxes for all workers earning below the national median income level would be eliminated," Sasseen wrote. "Slaughter has talked with campaign advisers in both parties. So far, he has no takers. But it's one more sign of how far the trade debate has moved."

The Ugly
 
     It’s an image a lot of us probably could do without – Hillary Clinton in a tutu. But that was among the myriad of topics discussed in a February 5 “Good Morning America” interview host Robin Roberts conducted with the former First Lady running for president.

     “And a final question – [I] want to take you down memory lane for just a moment,” Roberts said. “A picture of you, 7 years old, you’re in a tutu, no less, quite a pose you’re striking right here. What is it about that little girl that led you to this moment today?”

      That’s right – the American people needed that image, circa 1954, of Clinton in a tutu before they lined up to go vote on Super Tuesday.

          With Roberts’s softball questions throughout the interview, Clinton was able to stick with her standard statements about the need for mandatory universal health care and browbeating gloom into the economy. 

      “[Y]ou know, people who need a president, people who get up every day and work hard and see their wages diminishing and don’t have health care for their kids.” Clinton said, when asked about what she thought of her competitor, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), being endorsed by Oprah Winfrey, Maria Shriver and Caroline Kennedy. “You know, celebrity endorsements are, you know, intriguing, very interesting. But, they need a president who is going to be on their side. And, with two wars abroad and a looming recession, people need a president who is ready on day one to be commander-in-chief and to turn the economy around.”

      Roberts also tossed another softball Clinton’s way, by asking her to give her “final sales pitch.” That led to more of the same from Clinton.

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly tracks the best and worst media coverage of business and economics. Readers are invited to submit suggestions or news tips to Staff Writer Jeff Poor at jpoor@mediaresearch.org.