This visual actually aired, without a hint of irony or shame, on Fox News today, as if it presented accurate, legitimate information to its audience. Media Matters' Zachary Pleat called it "dishonest," but really, that's being overly generous. I'm more inclined to say Fox News is deliberately deceiving its viewers, assuming they won't know the difference.
via Media Matters
There are two main elements to this. The first is the notion that the "real" unemployment rate nearly doubled on President Obama's watch. To arrive at this figure, Fox News began with the standard U-3 unemployment rate from January 2009, and then compared it to August 2012 U-6 unemployment rate, which includes part-time workers who want to work full-time and those who've given up.
The only reason to equate a U-3 rate and a U-6 rate at the same time -- a classic apples to oranges comparison -- is to wildly mislead people. It's about as honest as saying a team that scored two touchdowns loses to a team that scored three field goals, because three is greater than two, and when you weren't looking, we decided to count by how many times each team scores.
The truth, for anyone who's interested, isn't hard to find. In February 2009, Obama's first full month in office, the U.S. economy lost 726,000 jobs and the standard unemployment rate was 8.2%. In August 2012, the U.S. economy added about 100,000 jobs and unemployment fell to 8.1%. Republicans can argue that's not good enough, and they can argue they would have done better, but if they don't want to be laughed at, they shouldn't try silly stunts like Fox News'.
The second is the jobless rate among "government workers" -- Fox wants its viewers to think hard-working folks in the private sector are struggling, while those public-sector workers have it easy. Reality, however, gets in the way of the narrative -- since the economy bottomed out, America's private sector has added 4.6 million jobs, while the nation's public sector has shed 571,000 jobs. Since the start of the recession, we've lost more jobs in government than any other sector of the economy. The public sector hasn't had it better than everyone else; the public sector has had it worse than everyone else
After the graphic aired, Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham asked, "Other than Fox News, where are you really seeing those statistics?" What a good question.
Update: "Fox & Friends" will reportedly air a correction tomorrow.
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Remember, by Fox's own majimatical computations, Offshore Willy is actually Joseph Smith.
The ONLY solace I take is that 90% of those watching Fox News are right wing conservatives who are voting for Romney already... this lie misleads those who also believe Obama is from Mars.
The fact that ANY news organization can air this and be consider credible is astonishing. I would say the same of MSNBC if they did this by airing the unemployment rate was much LOWER than it actually is.
The garbage that Fox News throws around absolutely blows my mind. Then again, if they want to cater to their average viewership of branwashed ignorant individuals, they're right on spot.
Folks, I appreciate how frustrating it is to try to have discourse with those in denial, but please don't resort to personal insults and name-calling. That is a classic Fox technique meant to distract their critics from the facts. It's ugly and divisive and we don't need to do that. Just continue to speak truth and, who knows? Maybe someone, somewhere will receive it. Forward!
From the "Linked In" ---
" Contact Steve for: new ventures"
Another of those 23,136,000 "Underemployed" ???
Steve Benen
Producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show" and MSNBC Contributor
“Frightened though they were, some of the animals might possibly have protested, but at this moment the sheep set up their usual bleating of ‘Four legs good, two legs bad,’ which went on for several minutes and put an end to the discussion. ” George Orwell, Animal Farm
In the private sector the biggest losers in terms of jobs is Construction workers.
source: BLS.gov
Total loss is 2,210,000 Construction jobs
Since Obama entered office - 1,043,000
So that is worse than Government workers - and one of the reasons that the Administration keeps trying get construction projects funded. Thank Congress for inaction on this.
That is good stuff, and on a slightly related note, I often think about how devastated the publishing industry has been (mostly due to technology advancement rather than overall economy) and what kind of impact it would have if everyone just committed themselves to subscribing to 2 or more non-digital periodicals (especially if they are newspapers). The resulting increase in employment and ad revenue would have to be significant, no?
Frankly I do not see a point to compare private /public sector. People need jobs to survive however the republicans as usual are trying to get the middle class to fight with each other
Does it really matter? Everyone knows this is the fake news. You might as well read the Onion news. It's more accurate.
The way prosecutions are going in Britain for 'phone hacking' and corruption of police there is NO reason why Justice cannot prosecute Murdoch under Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Why anyone would believe a word Murdoch or his organs has to say is truly baffling... He bought fake HITLER diaries in 1980s, hacked the phones of dead school girls (and probably the families of 9/11 victims) and will one day be called to account for his greed and arrogance.
Recently, while on a cruise with limited television and fox news being one of the only two news stations, i was made clearly aware of how they distort and skew towards the right. One incident in particular where they showed a film clip of a democrats comment....and then proceeded to deny and change every word we had just heard.
They are not responsible, obviously not ethical and in my estimation not a realistic source for news. Needless to say, fox news is never watched in this house lest we be as ignorant as those conservatives who applaud it.
"Since the start of the recession, we've lost more jobs in government than any other sector of the economy. The public sector hasn't had it better than everyone else; the public sector has had it worse than everyone else"
So when will Benen correct this 100% demonstrably false statistic?
And if you want to get technical, the unemployment rate for government workers is 0%. After all, they are WORKERS!
Anybody remember this?
http://www.buzzfeed.com/ebroodle/fox-news-pie-chart-fail-68j
Fox has a very difficult relationship with numbers.
Na Fox doesn't you libs sure do.
I would like to know how they know how many people have stopped looking. Have they asked, or are they just relying on the number of people filing for unemployment? If the latter is the case, do you know anyone whose unemployment has run out but has simply stopped looking for work? All of my friends whose benefits have expired are desperate for work. Let's call it what it is. Don't categorize everyone as having given up simply because their benefits have run out.
"Fox & Friends" will reportedly air 'a correction' tomorrow." Perhaps they will. And if they do, no one will notice. No one pays much attention to corrections. Bottom line? The lie stands as is.
A retraction won't matter. The damage is done. Self-immolation for Fox anchors should always be an option.
What in the world is the unemployment rate for government workers? That makes no sense.
Soooo when does the general public stop watching Fox News to the point of their losing ratings and losing their position on TV. I refuse to ever have it on in our house. We all know that they only lie and push their own agenda. That it is only sensationalize news.
Can i just say that I love the title of the piece? "Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics" Anybody else getting the The West Wing reference?
I totally get the need to yell at Fox, but can we just applaud TRMS's staff for one moment for this? I love their titles for just about everything, because they are just so right on and show off knowledge of popular culture. Thank you, TRMS!
FOXTICIOUS NEWS? suck it up all you delirious conservatives.
Did they add newborns and the retired to the list?
And will inform their viewers that the "error" was "inadvertent", as they usually do?
Let's get to the real numbers, how about 14% unemployment. You Libs on Obama is like a drug addiction!
Fox News is deliberately deceiving its viewers, assuming they won't know the difference.
They won't know the difference, they rely on their ignorance and refusal to look up facts for themselves.
Do or do not.... there is no try. (apologies to Yoda)
Fox "news" isn't "trying" to mislead anyone. They are misleading people by the millions. This confirms what I've been hearing for weeks from the right wing-nuts about Obama "destroying" jobs.