The latest monthly job totals were released late last week, and the news was quite encouraging. The economy added 243,000 jobs in January -- 257,000 in the private sector -- and the unemployment rate fell to 8.3%. The job totals are the best we've seen in two years, and the jobless rate has reached its lowest level in three years.
The right has struggled with the news. Mitt Romney went into denial; his supporters desperately tried to convince people not to give President Obama credit; GOP leaders on Capitol Hill found themselves at a loss for words; and Fox News spent much of Friday going to comical lengths to pretend the jobs report wasn't newsworthy at all.
And then, there are the conspiracy theorists.
Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) came first, arguing on Friday there's "something suspicious about the job numbers." He did not elaborate.
Media Matters
On Fox News' "Fox & Friends" this morning, the cast went down this road with more enthusiasm. Here's what Eric Bolling told viewers:
"So are they playing around with the numbers? Look, it's the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it's supposed to be non-partisan, but that's the Department of Labor. Hilda Solis heads the Department of Labor, Hilda Solis works directly to Obama. I'm, you know."
Steve Doocy raised the question of whether the Obama administration is "cooking the books," while Gretchen Carlson emphasized the fact that this is "an election year."
Oh my.
For the record, there is absolutely zero evidence to suggest the unemployment data has been manipulated in any way. The monthly report is compiled by career officials at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, who've done nothing to have their integrity called into question, and if Republicans are going to raise the specter of an elaborate conspiracy theory, it's incumbent on them to offer at least some kind of proof.
Alex Seitz-Wald had a good take on this:
If it weren't improper to psychologically analyze strangers, one might think the Fox hosts are displaying a textbook example of cogitative dissonance here, a psychological phenomena in which people who hold on strong belief about something invent (sometimes farfetched) explanations for new evidence that conflicts with their existing views. Obama is bad for the economy, the jobs numbers show the economy is doing better, so there must be something wrong with the jobs numbers. Needless to say, this is hardly the behavior one expects from fair and balanced journalists Fox hosts claim to be.
I am curious about something, though. If the conspiracy theorists on the jobs report were right, why did the Obama administration wait three years to start manipulating the report? In other words, if political and electoral considerations were driving the data, leading officials to "cook the books," why wait so long? Wouldn't it have been better to show a significant improvement shortly before the 2010 midterms? Why wouldn't the administration just keep the unemployment rate artificially low all along?
Perhaps "Fox & Friends" can tackle this tomorrow.
Leave a Comment:
Well, the obvious answer is that he was "saving" it as his ace for getting re-elected.
guess like all of his wall street buddy's are just saying bad things about him while pumping money into his coffers.
next phase for the right,,, its all us we did it, it was our sabotaging and obstructionism that cause the economy to turn around.
ahahahaha...that's stupid.
Come on, even if the conspiracy theorists were reich - it's not as though this President lied about WMD's and took this nation to WAR, again!
"The Truth" is an ugly serpent for the reich!
@Pilotshark: I think they already was saying it last week. They claimed that the economy is not growing fast enough because despite their effort of pushing back on all the regulation that the WH and Democrats are pushing, obviously there are more deregulation that can be done.
Is it a wonder that the Republican constituents are so delusional?
Amazing. Fox & Friends have the nerve to accuse Obama of "cooking the books" while every day they cook up batches of crack and crank to pay right-wing trolls to spread their lies and discredited conspiracy theories across the blogosphere. Priceless!
So wait- I'm confused. I thought the jobs reports meant that things were doing better despite how terrible Obama has been? Oh I can't keep my talking points in order!
Some networks report the news. Fox news prefers to make the news, and then report it as truth. They're the used car salesmen of the media, you know before you turn to them that they're going to lie to you, you just have to fact check everything yourself so you don't walk away with a lemon.
jobs improving and now this headline from C&L its not a good start of Feb form the right, well their number one won in NV in guess. LOL
February 06, 2012 01:01 PM
Obama Approval at 50%, Higher Than George W. Bush's at Same Point in Presidency
By Blue Texan
fox appeals to some very unlikely folks...i think their biggest competition is SNL.
The biggest problem in our political system is the "base" of the pyramid -- meaning the voters. When FNC and like minded ideologues are the food people eat to get their "information calories", then we can see how they will vote.
The candidates then play to this false and/or misleading diet of crap... to gain power.
The problem: Using ideology instead of reality to form viewpoints. The left wing voices shouldn't think they are blameless, however -- they certainly welcome reality into a discussion far more often. Does this mean "liberal" and "conservative" REALLY apply to ones grasp of reality? Maybe.
You can bet though if the unemployment numbers had risen they would have no problem taking THAT at face value!
This is, after all, coming from a network that chose for itself the moniker "fair and balanced."
Fair to republicans balanced by hatred for democrats. We distort, you decide!
You never put anything past the "Chicago" way, "just a guy in my neighborhood" Obama.
That ..of course..is just what your mother said.
Pray tell what the "Chicago" way is because we residents of Chicago are interested in what delusions you are entertaining.
I spoke too soon. Here is Contessa from January
From the thread Maddow to PolitiFact: What is wrong with you? Also, you're fired.
So apparently, again, when Contessa wants to say that the economy is doing better that means that the jobs reports are accurate. But when Contessa wants to say that the economy is doing worse this must mean that better jobs numbers are because of Chicago politics.
You. Can't. Make. This. Stuff. Up.
You. Can't. Make. This. Stuff. Up.
LOL
sadly they can and do repeatedly.
If the country was run like the city of Chicago, we would be better off. Fiscal conservatism, liberal social policies and NO REPUBLICAN PARTY because it does not exist in Chicago. The Dems have run the city since 1932 when the corrupt and disgraced Republican Big Bill Thompson was voted out of office. The last Republican candidate for mayor was in 1976 and shortly thereafter, there were no Republican aldermen and there are no people who run on the Republican ballot.
Fiscal conservatism, liberal social policies and NO REPUBLICAN PARTY because it does not exist in Chicago.
Fiscal conservatism - Chicago's budget deficit is projected to be $636 million in 2012.
"We have a structural problem, and the moment of truth has arrived," Emanuel said at a City Hall news conference. "An economic recovery will not solve this problem for us."
Well Mike, if that is fiscal conservatism, I'm glad we're not fiscally "liberal" here in Chicago. The only good thing it seems, is that Mayor Emanuel may actually and finally be the fiscal conservative you speak of.
The city's deficit is manageable. Considering the size of the city and the amount of services, the deficit is not something that would force drastic cuts. Unfortunately, it will mean increased taxes and higher service fees for water and garbage. But that is the price we pay for living in a large city which cannot be managed like a small town.
Nice spin Mike. Increased taxes are always good for the local economy. And you are right I guess about no drastic cuts - just things like libraries closed on Mondays and the city employee furlough days (which are no longer around thankfully). I do agree that this is a big city that works, but when you said fiscally conservative....
Libraries closed on one day is preferable to closing branches in various neighborhoods and making people travel further to get to a library. The city also provides services that are provided by counties and townships in other areas. The mayor is doing a lot of things to bring down costs, but you can only cut so much. When you consider how much the city spends for services, streets, etc., then the deficit is not something that would push the city into a federal bankruptcy reorganization. This is not Detroit.
They seem to engineer the truth to make it fit their election strategy. They've concentrated on the poor economic condition, and now that it's getting better they don't have a leg to stand on, so to speak. That bunch seems to be a total stranger to the truth.
I have a conservative idiot friend who spreads his rumor via The American Thinker.com. Ann Coulter is one of their contributors. My idiot friend has only their crap on his home page.
One of my Repug friends wanted to discuss politics. He knows I'm liberal. I told him NO because he's hardcore conservative... nothing would change his mind, and it would be a waste of my time. He got real angry at me and decided not to speak to me anymore. Guess it really wasn't much of a friendship.
Same thing happened to me. Good friend (I thought) was sending me a slew of republican garbage and one day I responded by asking her why she had such an animus against President Obama. Her response was such a venom filled rant that I couldn't believe it. I knew her 15 years ago and she would never have talked that way. Then she moved to Virginia and was born-again, what a change. She has not written to me since. Guess it doesn't matter much.
There's this really right-wing guy at work. I never have anything to do with him, which is easy because his desk is far, far away from mine and he reports to a different person. Anyway, about a year or so ago he sends me a politically inflammatory email for no apparent reason. He sent it from his work email address to mine, so I forwarded it to my supervisor with a comment to the effect that I didn't think it was a good use of company resources. I don't know what happened next but I never got another email like that one. The thing was just so pointlessly and randomly hostile that I just didn't want to engage directly. It really was very freaky. That he was screwing around on the job gave me an easy out. But I still don't know what set him off.
well, it basically comes down to the theory that people hear and see what they want to...perception is a scary 600 lb Gorilla...some of the poorest people in my town Vote Repub. The very programs that keep them afloat would be gone if the repubs had their way...typical fox news viewers.......perceptions?....makes me scratch my head.
Fox and Friends are sociopaths!
Unless one is a mentally challanged daily viewer of Fox and Friends, one merely has to tune into those poor wretched souls once to see they are very sad excuses for human beings. Doocy and Carlson are crack-plastic actors who deliever their lines the way the teleprompter tells them to. They continually express a general malaise attractive to the lesser-thinkers in our great nation who generally hold negative thoughts toward otherness to begin with.
Preaching to the chior from the pulpet of Fox and Friends is an exercise in duplicitous convolution! -Kevo
I feel like I am being ear-raped every time I hear Fox in a public place.
It kind of makes you miss Glenn Beck on Fox. He could spin a conspiracy with some insane verve! Fox and Friends just comes off as pathetic.
As much as i Hate Beck, you are right. You do have to appreciate his ability to spin a conspiracy into something that someone will believe. That someone is typically a religious nutbar, but still...
True.
Beck was priceless.
Fair and balanced? Not even close.These puppet fox talking heads will say anything as long as it goes against President Obama.i believe if America was 2 % unemployment and the economy was growing at 8% yearly they would say it was no good because .....oh its just that we hate the man in charge.
You don't ever want to try to take 'fair and balanced' at face value. The right's long-standing and self-serving complaint against the media has been that it is biased and unfair to conservatives. Fox calls itself 'fair and balanced' simply in order to let wingers know that they'll get all the validation and confirmation they will ever need from Fox News.
Oh, I forgot to add, duplicitous convolution is the same as bearing false witness, so those poor souls of Fox and Friends are going to be going to a place in their afterlives where they will need no warm clothes! -Kevo
It is ok to lie and cheat and steal when you are fighting against evil incarnate or a socialist, commie, Kenyan muslim!
Doesn't count if you're Lying For Jesus.
Fox & Friends is a "Puppet Show" and why anyone over the age of five would watch truly amazes me...
I actually like to watch Fox News. My family always question why as it seem to always hike my blood pressure up. But as I always put it: It is like watching a car wreck....soooooo horrible, but you just can't take your eyes off it.
In actuality I like to watch it and then listen to my right wing friends and hear them repeat the latest right wings' "buzz word" and go: "Yep...Doocy said that this morning...do you have your own opinion?" They usually stop talking to me after that.
If you want to know what the current "buzz word" is...gotta watch the Fox ;)
Narada
I liken Fox & Friends to the old TV show Kukla, Fran & Ollie. I mean Steve Ducey looks like a human version of Ollie!
http://jaydeanhcr.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/kukla_fran_ollie.jpg
"Cooked" numbers or not, 8.3 % is nothing to cheer about. If it is still around that number in 10 months it can't be good for the incumbent.
omg look! finally a cogent Republican response. And of course it's coming from our good friend skip =)*
Yes if the numbers don't continue to go up at above-population-growth levels it's not going to do well for Obama. I am hopeful that things will look up, but we will have to see.
*PS I wasn't being sarcastic. Fake conservatives make my brain explode >.<
Mouzer, I have voted third party since 1980. And before that in my first Presidential election I voted for Gerald Ford only because I was from Grand Rapids (just a silly 18 yr old then :-)). Why do people here think that if you are not 100% in agreement with everyone else here you are a Republican? I will take your compliment that my response is cogent though :).
Seriously, I do find it interesting when we as a country cheer 8.3% unemployment. If this was the figure when Bush was in office, you know this site would be very very negative on it. Yes, yes, I know this is Bush's fault....but it is just the glass half empty/half full context I am referring to.
Your disagreeing w/ me wasn't the premise as to why I thought you were a Republican. I thought you had stated you were. You mostly disagree- or at least I thought so? now I'm questioning my memory!- because you like to play devil's advocate. If I'm mistaken apologies, but I was pretty sure you had said that you purposely play the role of devil's advocate since you believe it's an under appreciated role. I don't know when you are expressing your view points or when you're expressing an opposing view just so that it can be stated in the realm of debate. Often times- like when I've said you were a Tea Party member- you've mistaken that context from me as stating you were as opposed to what I meant which was that the argument you were presenting was one (as part of playing devil's advocate). So I will redact my statement and correct myself for future understanding: you're an Independent. No problem ;-). But yes I had genuinely meant it as a compliment that you were bringing a cogent opposition statement to the foreground as opposed to a stupid one like excusing it some other silliness.
8.3% unemployment is not great, but I have a lot of ambiguity as to what we should be doing to fix it. I honestly don't think people give Obama as much conservative credit as he deserves since he's taking a very hands-off market approach to the economy. The slower rate in jobs mostly comes from the fact that he's trying to spend a little money as possible stimulating economic growth. If Obama wanted to take a liberal hippie approach he would've put money directly into a national Job Corps program and people would've been employed on the federal dollar for 8 months+. Even the money spent on the stimulus has gone to business loans or grants or projects that then hired private businesses. All w/ the intention that those businesses will maintain jobs and grow in the long term. He has also adjusted the tax code and regulatory code in such a way as to give production here in the US more precedent over production in China- a completely new direction than what we took under Clinton or Bush. This is part of why so many manufacturing jobs are coming back from overseas. Boom and bust cycles (and recoveries) are not good for economic stability. I think Obama might actually be trying to recover this economy in a way that's meant for long term stability and if that's so this would be the most fiscally sound recovery we've had in decades.
W/ that said the slow growth of a non-boom cycle sucks and it's something I've never seen in my lifetime. It's just that he might actually be trying to push the economy to a state where we're only gaining jobs just slightly higher than that of the rate of population growth (which is what you want when you want your economy to stabilize). That's great in terms of long term debt and deficit reduction, balancing budgets, etc....but if you're one of the unemployed....some people may be looking at years before they get a job under such a policy.
Is it better? I can't really say.
"Seriously, I do find it interesting when we as a country cheer 8.3% unemployment"
cannot speak for others but i am a positive person so yes i am cheering as its not at 10% and is heading in the correct direction down, all be it slow and we can argue why, but most ever one knows why. i know to simple, but then again i always try the KISS method.
Keep It Simple Smart
It is eerie to discuss things with people that are unable to engage critical reasoning abilities on hot topics.
I'm so amazed so many are faithful to Fox. The only network who admits to making up news and can';t be shown in Canada because it's fakes the news. When will these people realize they are being duped?
It's not as if they care whether or not they're being duped, you know. All that is important is that their personal attitudes are being supported and verified.
Things I would like to hear on Fox news:
The 8.3% unemployment under Obama that happened after Republicans made Mexicans illegal in 2006 is much worse than the 25% unemployment that happened under FDR after Republicans made Mexicans illegal the first time in 1929.
If you can't awe them with facts, baffle 'em with bull@!$%#. (Engraved in FOX news studios facing the talking spigots.)
when in doubt just Bravo Sierra is fox/saudi/propaganda entertainment news would say.
take a lie and just run with it.
Despite the best attempts by House Republicans and the most intransigent do-nothing Congress in modern American history, our economy is soaring once again and well on its way to making up for the Bush recession that very nearly destroyed this country. Republicans are flummoxed because they bet on a bad economy, and they have tried everything in their power to make it happen. The GOP is against America and against Americans. No wonder the polls are nothing but bad news for Romney and the GOP gang. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
I'm having a hard time with reconciling "well on its way" with "seven years to go until full employment."
I find this issue of Birth Control interesting the Catholic Church says no do not make us have to provide coverage for such a thing. But I have to ask the Catholic church what are you than a church, a hospital or an insurance company? And if you insure people that are not Catholic, are you not denying them coverage for something they want? The Catholic church has allowed contraceptives in certain cases, than how can you deny people coverage for the principles of safe sex? The catholic church needs to decide what they are a church, an insurance company or a hospital, because President Obama is right in his definition of our Constitution and is doing this for the benefit of all people. If people want to believe and follow a certain faith that is up to them and it is the people who will decide what their religious values will be. So if a person wants to follow some particular religious principle that is up to them and will decide to use or not to use birth control as our religious freedoms are stated in our Constitution. Thus this senseless argument coming from the Catholic Church is really a mute point.
Bill Moyers guest of 03FEB nails it > http://billmoyers.com/series/moyers-and-company/
Jonathan Haidt's research for book (in pre-release) 'The Righteous Mind...' is the topic for the show:
How Do Conservatives and Liberals See the World?
February 3, 2012 | Moyers & Company
Bill talks with social psychologist Jonathan Haidt about the moral underpinnings of our contentious culture.
Carve out 56:46 for this Moyers showcase if you missed it. While NOT very encouraging it does answer the question 'what's wrong with 'THEM'
I saw that yesterday and it was very discouraging. There is a psychological survey in conjunction with the video that also raises some interesting points about what personal characteristics and values are associated with being liberal and conservative. It kind of puts to rest what the trolls say on various threads who seem to think that liberals are the ones being led down the garden path. And it explains a lot about why data and evidence doesn't make any impression on their mindsets.
These people really have no shame. They are laughable. I wonder if:
A) They really believe the crap they peddle
B) If their heads would explode if they were ever confronted with the truth
c) If their heads did explode, would there be anything inside
A) Yes. I even have reason to think they still believe in Santa Claus.
B) No, because their heads are protected by the conservative bubble.
C) Yes, tea bags.
Ha ha ha! Leave it to an organization so accustomed to "cooking the books" to wrongly accuse another. Switching switching video from a rally 9 months earlier into "news" about a tea party rally to make it look better attended. News a bout Mark Foley(R) (having affairs with interns)was originally broken With Mark Foley (D). Only later after being called out by john stewart do they correct this! There apology for the Rally thing was I believe " We;re sorry this was an OVERSIGHT! This would be a good time Rachel to a) expose the hypocrisy based on the facts and b) Please educate people on the meaning of OVERSIGHT as you did with "mis-speak". Pulling video from 9 months ago is NOT OVERSIGHT. It is an intention act TO DECEIVE.
The GOP "logic" appears to be that if the jobs numbers are good, then Obama deserves no credit because the president doesn't create jobs. At the same time Obama is to blame if the job numbers aren't good, because why else would he be cooking the books.
Now for some additional perspective via the facts (source bls.gov):
Peak Private Sector Employment - Jan 2008 - 115,647,000
At Feb 2009 (first Obama Month) - 110,260,000
At Jan 2012 (current month) - 110,436,000
Hmmm, so we've up 176k private sector jobs but still down 3,662,000 lost during the Bush administration.
Now it's about cleaning up after the past administration.
Additional perspective:
Feb 2001 - 111,623,000
Jan 2004 - 108,883,000
Bush lost 2.74 million jobs in the first 36 months of his first term as well.
And we're now 1.187 million down from when Clinton left the White House.
Since all the jobs now added back came in this administration and since the Republicans had years of tax cuts and less regulation from 2001, where is the explanation for why we have over 1 million less private sector jobs today than we had when Bill Clinton was in office 12 years ago.
Spin that one Fox & Friends!
People and organizations are still paying Art Lauffer to say that there are still too many regulations and the tax cuts for the 'job creators' were not deep enough.
Art Laffer should update his research to reflect corporate taxes. They have been reduced by nearly 80% since the 1950s.
Yes average federal revenues have been just around 18% of GDP but that has come at the expense of working people with increases in the FICA contribution to keep total federal revenues higher while corporate fees, income taxes and other government fees have consistently dropped not because of corporate behaviors(Laffer's presumption of fixed revenues by behavior/avoidance) but because of corporate lobbyists.
These lies need to be yanked out by the roots.
That would be really nice, but I despair of it ever happening. You cannot talk to people who are so full of hate and venom that they don't believe any thing about President Obama that is good.
After shutting down the war in Iraq, after ridding the world of Osama bin Laden and many of the Al-Quaida elite, after bringing the Detroit auto industry from bankruptcy to #1 in the world, after watching President Bush and the Republican Party walk our financial institutions into the most massive collapse of our economy since the great depression, they still refuse to see that the Republican Party is the "conspiracy" with ALEC, the Koch Brothers and their wealthy bosses who are the cause of where we are today. How dense do you have to be to deny the obvious?
It isn't to President Obama's credit that the employment and economy numbers are improving, but it is his fault that the economy hasn't grown faster??????? How can he be at fault, if he isn't lauded for the good????? I am disgusted with the whole business - A frog is a frog is a frog and can never learn to be anything but a frog.
There are a whole bunch of frogs out there.
No rationale or explanation or even contention that it is within the rhelm of the possible are necessary for Fox Noise, Rush Limpbahls, Sean InSanity, or the wacked-out reich wings of the repuknican party!
There is nothing contradictory about this. Belief supercedes fact and science for a wide swath of the repub party.
Descaretes may have "I think therefore I am."
Republicans have "I believe therefore it is!" and "I hate therefore I am."
They have no problem expounding on this type of nonsense because "its something THEY would do"
yeah, various articles at the washington times are peddling this nonsense as well...you'd almost think the rnc put out a memo or something...