We have noted how Fox News is working – along with the Republican Party – to help Senate candidate Bill Cassidy (R-LA) beat Democrat Mary Landrieu in their runoff next month. That effort continued yesterday as Cassidy visited Fox for the third time in as many days. Neil Cavuto was such a gracious host, he did not challenge Cassidy’s grossly inflated estimate of the number of jobs the Keystone XL pipeline would create.
Cassidy said, “The president apparently has announced that he would veto” the bill. “That’s OK,” according to Cassidy. Why? Because Obama will be on record as "opposing 40,000 jobs that would go to families who are now struggling. Now, if the President wants to be on record for that, so be it. It is the responsibility of Congress to do what is right, both by those 40,000 families but also by our nation’s energy supply.”
Cassidy later continued - and generously suggested that only Democrats should do the sacrificing for struggling Americans: “One thing we have to do, though, is commit to the American people to create better jobs. These 40,000 jobs are for the families who right now are most struggling. They don’t have Ph. D’s in silver engineering. They are the ones though who do construction, or mining, or manufacturing. This would help them. It’s an important measure to pass. If it takes Sen. Landrieu’s job being on the line, or Harry Reid to agree to pass the legislation, so be it. Let’s get it to the President’s desk.”
But as Media Matters notes, the “40,000 jobs created” is a myth that was long ago debunked. In 2011, a Cornell University study found only 50 permanent jobs would be created. This week, PolitiFact rated a similar claim about the pipeline by Fox host Anna Kooiman as “mostly false.”
None of that was mentioned by Cavuto.
Watch it below, from yesterday’s Your World.