When a terrific economic report was delivered on Fox & Friends yesterday, host Steve Doocy announced, “So the headline is unemployment rate ticks up to 5.7.”
Nicole Petallides from Fox Business gave the whole story. She said about the slight rise in unemployment, “That’s OK, and I’ll explain why. That’s because Americans are getting back into the workforce, that’s great news.” A graphic showed 257,000 non-farm payroll jobs were created in January. Petallides added, “That’s more than the estimates. In fact, the three months together capped the best gain, the biggest gain that we’ve seen in 17 years.”
Petallides also said, “Hourly wages rose 0.5%, that’s the most we’ve seen since 2008. And when I mentioned Americans getting back into the work force, that’s the labor force participation rate, and that’s a good sign. Boost in hiring. Hey, we’ve had a great week on Wall Street. The Dow’s up 4% this week.”
Steve Doocy closed by saying “So the headline is unemployment rate ticks up to 5.7.”
It wasn’t just Doocy. A lower-third banner blared the same cherry-picked, misleading announcement.
Watch it below, from yesterday's Fox & Friends, via Media Matters.