FiveThirtyEight.com noted that both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump could spin Friday’s jobs report as there was both good news and bad in it. Guess which side Fox News chose?
From FiveThirtyEight:
Friday’s jobs report, the third-to-last before voters head to the polls in November, offered evidence for both sides. Employers added 151,000 jobs in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported; that’s the weakest growth since May, and a bit below economists’ expectations, but still not a bad number in absolute terms. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.9 percent for the third month in a row; hourly earnings rose modestly. The rest of the report fit the same basic pattern: a bit disappointing compared to June and July, but not bad overall.
On Friday’s Your World show, host Trish Regan opened a discussion on the subject with a Fox News Alert and saying, “I can tell you it’s been one lousy job market this summer.”
Steve Moore, Trump’s economic advisor piled on.
MOORE: This was another kind of dismal economic report, and when you have a record high number of people out of the workforce, it’s just big trouble for the economy. We’re, not producing enough jobs to get everybody back to work, and not only that but the wages just aren’t keeping pace with the amount of money people are spending. So we need dramatic change. The problem for Hillary, she’s talking about pretty much staying on the course we’re on.
Regan helpfully (to Trump) added, “Maybe making it worse via more taxes?”
Later, Regan lamented to Fox’s Dagen McDowell, “Some jobs were added, but these are not really jobs that are paying well, are they?”
McDowell didn’t come right out and say “Vote for Trump” but that message was loud and clear:
MCDOWELL: Manufacturing job losses, construction job losses, the labor force participation rate is still near a 40-year low. You have tens of millions of people who have simply given up looking for work. So there needs to be an attitude shift. Hillary Clinton’s plan is more of the same, with a different result, which I’ve said before is the very definition of insanity.
Regan laughed heartily at that swipe.
Regan then turned to Christy Setzer, the lone person out of four not using the jobs report to suggest viewers should vote for Trump. She said “150,000 jobs is not bad. It’s not amazing, it’s not as great as we had in the previous months where we were over 250,000, but it’s really not terrible.” She said the overall picture of the economy was “good, not great.”
At least Setzer was able to speak without being interrupted. But as soon as she finished, Regan jumped in to discredit her. “4.9% unemployment rate certainly sounds good, right?” Regan said. “But let’s peel back the layers on that a little bit more.”
Translation: Let’s have some more of the pro-Trump perspective. In fact, Regan provided it herself after McDowell complained that neither candidate was talking about the national debt. Pointing to a poll showing that voters think the economy is the most important issue facing the country, Regan “asked” Moore, “Is this perhaps why we’re starting to see Hillary Clinton’s lead weaken?”
But when Moore said Trump needs a big lead in order to win the election, Regan jumped in to help.
“Well, look, it should be an easy thing to do because she’s talking about a continuation of Obama’s policies which obviously haven’t worked,” Regan said, to close the segment.
Maybe Obama's policies haven't worked as well as we'd wish. But as Politicususa noted (quoting the White House's Jesse Lee), Obama's record as a jobs creator is so strong that if Mitt Romney had those numbers, they'd be "getting chiseled under his face on Mount Rushmore as we speak.”
Watch the bias below, from the September 2, 2016 Your World.
Regan did work at Bloomberg before she went to Fox. I disliked her there, too, but maybe she has some chops as a business reporter?
If you want to see a really rotten economy, turn back the clock to exactly eight years ago. Everyone was shitting their pants over whether or not the REPUBLICAN President was gonna put us in another Great Depression.
But she’s a shameless right-wing shill. Shorten your skirt, pass the Ailes ass ogle test, and you’re hired! 👍