Chris Matthews Falsely Claims Unemployment Rate Now 'Lowest' Since 'Obama Took Office'
Is MSNBC's Chris Matthews stupid, dishonest, or both?
On Friday's Hardball, the host actually said of today's report from the Department of Labor, "The unemployment rate did drop to 8.1 percent, the lowest rate since President Obama took office" (video follows with transcribe highlights and commentary):
After introducing his first guests, Matthews said, "Today’s jobs report was a mixed bag of course. 115,000 jobs were added to payrolls in April. The unemployment rate did drop to 8.1 percent, the lowest rate since President Obama took office."
No!
As the following chart from the Bureau of Labor Statistics clearly shows, the unemployment rate was 7.3 percent when Obama was sworn in.
However, as Inauguration Day is January 20, most people consider a new president's starting point as far as jobs are concerned to be that January's number. As such, Obama's term began with unemployment at 7.8 percent.
We of course are used to liberal media members distorting economic data for this president's benefit.
But to falsely say unemployment is now at "the lowest rate since" Obama took office is either the height of ignorance, dishonesty, or both.
Sadly, this is pretty commonplace on this so-called "news network" these days.
- Noel Sheppard's blog
- Login to post comments
Comments
Is MSNBC's Chris Matthews stupid, dishonest, or both?
Submitted by tcm14 on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 6:35pm.
Well he seems too stupid to be dishonest, and yet he seems too dishonest to be stupid. That's a very zen question.
Matthews is a total idiot
Submitted by Galvanic on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 6:37pm.
He just regurgitates whatever they feed him at MSNBC.
I'm surprised that he didn't remind us that "The 10.0% unemployment in 2010 was the highest since Bush was elected in 2000."
So You're Going With Stupid
Submitted by tcm14 on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 6:41pm.
Yeah I can see that. The thing is he has just enough low cunning to make him dishonest too. I wouldn't exactly call it intelligence though.
Truth has not mattered for a
Submitted by ricklail on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 6:22pm.
Truth has not mattered for a long time on MESSNBC. It is not going to get any better between now and November.
Noel, but wait, there's more
Submitted by Tomorama on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 6:34pm.
Noel, also from the same 11 minute segment (I watched and I feel dirty....), they NEVER brought up the fact that it went down ONLY because 522,000 thousand people gave up just last month which now is at the highest total ever (breaking last months record)........
They also blamed the Republicans for Obama not requesting more money for the first stimulus even though the Dems controlled everything.
99 percent was bashing Republicans and 1 percent was Obysmal not spending more........................
Krugman, Heilman and Matthews errrrr Moe, Larry and Curley?
Nope, that would be an insult to imbeciles most sointenly...
Lowest of the Obama presidency?
Submitted by CO2Maker on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 6:43pm.
That would be the trickle on Chris the Wide Mouth Frog's leg.
If it was more than 8.1% when he took office
Submitted by motherbelt on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 6:49pm.
why did he say his stimulus package would keep it from going ABOVE 8%???
And now, it's...
Submitted by Anon150 on Sun, 05/06/2012 - 11:01am.
...At 14.5%
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm
From the Bureau of Labor.
Matthews has no credibility
Submitted by Semus on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 6:56pm.
Matthews has no credibility at all, a complete sell out.
Mainly, Chris Matthews is a pusher
Submitted by needle on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 9:30pm.
Yes, Semus, but there are hundreds of thousands of Kool-aid addicts who tune in to Hardball to get their daily dose. Sad.
Really, there needs to be a new subsidiary of AA to treat these derelicts.
- Looking forward to the self-annihilation of the Manipulated Stories Machine.
Unemployment Numbers
Submitted by djwolf12 on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 7:01pm.
Is Matthews including Keith Olbermann in these statistics? Or former Blockbuster employees? How about former Verizon employees?
It's easy to say unemployment numbers are falling when you don't count companies that are currently closing their doors. Also, it's easy to say that numbers are falling when you don't count the unemployed people that have given up looking for work. TRUE UNEMPLOYMENT FIGURES should be counted by the amount of Unemployment checks sent to each and every household and their occupants.
Closer than Usual
Submitted by giatn on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 7:02pm.
Actually Mathews is more right than wrong. Obama wasn't sworn in until Jan 21st 2009
which would mean that February 2009 was the first full month he was president.
8.1% is lower than 8.3%. Considering the large decline in the percentage in the workforce,
the 8.1% rate is not that meaningful anyway.
Two thoughts:
Submitted by TheHistorian on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 8:58pm.
First, Obama ran around with his stupid "Office of the President-Elect" sign for two months before his immaculation. Further, he voted for all the bad stuff that caused this, from avoiding housing reform to the Dodd-Frankenstein bill. So Obama owns the increase from November, not February.
Second, the question below is a good one. Why did he say "his stimulus would not let the unemployment go above 8% if it was already above 8%? Obama apparently recognized he owned unemployment as of January stats is what I figure.
But you are right on your other point. In Jan 2009, 142,187,000 people were employed. Today, only 141,865,000 people are employed, which is a decrease in employed of 300,000, while the total available for work went up in the same period by by about 100,000. By rational number calculations, you should not be able to say that unemployment went DOWN when there are more people available but fewer jobs (www.bls.gov). Sounds to me like Paul Krugman math.
Dennis Prager
More wrong than right.
Submitted by CobraMan on Sat, 05/05/2012 - 1:03pm.
"Actually Mathews is more right than wrong. "
No, Mathews is more wrong than right. The February unemployment rate calculations began AFTER Obama was already in office, not before.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
Tingles
Submitted by HudsonRiverGirl on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 7:17pm.
Leg tingles affect one's ability to tell the truth.
As do
Submitted by bobsmom on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 9:08pm.
"leg bags"; and both deal with the possibility of human waste running down your lower extremities.
A very minor error on
Submitted by amazd007 on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 8:07pm.
A very minor error on Matthews' part. Really not worth mentioning.
It is if one is unemployed, or underemployed
Submitted by Blonde on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 10:41pm.
But keep shilling for The Won. It won't help, but you'll feel better.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
UN sez: 'Return land to Indians!' US says: 'Give back our $$!"
Submitted by Slyrr on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 9:59pm.
The UN says the US should disband and give all 'stolen' land back to the Indians. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/04/us-stolen-land-indian-tribes-un
I think the US should say to the UN: 'Give the US back every penny we've ever given you!'
Saw that report.
Submitted by almostacowboy on Sat, 05/05/2012 - 9:07am.
Does anyone need further proof of the total superfluousness of the UN?
Here we go...........
Submitted by GregE on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 11:16pm.
.........looking ONLY at the unemployment rate. Nevermind that the labor participation rate is the lowest since 1981, 31 years ago. Nevermind that people are dropping off of the benefit rolls in big numbers.
The unemployment rate is only useful when other numbers are put into perspective around it. If everyone who was out of work, also stopped claiming benefits, guess what the unemployment rate would be? ZERO. That would be a massively historical record, but an absolutely USELESS and DECEITFUL number, yet likely exploited as a great achievement by either political party's President at the time.
This cant continue without collapsing......
Submitted by GregE on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 10:20pm.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/people-not-labor-force-soar-522000-labor-f...
Where does this crap end?????????
Chrissy's hormones ..
Submitted by almostacowboy on Sat, 05/05/2012 - 9:10am.
get him all flustered when talking about anything Obama.
Chris has a big headache
Submitted by ohio granny on Sat, 05/05/2012 - 9:33am.
Chris' head must really hurt by trying to spin all the bad unemployment numbers in Obama's favor. Only a loon could look at the numbers that came out this past week and spin them in O's favor.
Oops, sorry loons, compared to Chris you look awfully smart.
Lies as fact
Submitted by Kingfish17 on Sat, 05/05/2012 - 6:23pm.
I rarely watch CNN, but yesterday while watching Wolf Blitzer's show, a guest of his was talking about how great the economy was, and stated flat out that the "stock market" was at an all time high. No rebuttal from Blitzer, and no rebuttal from the so called conservative guest from Red State. I literally watched less then a minute of Blitzer's show and caught them in a bold faced lie that is so easy to refute it was silly. I can only wonder at the number of lies on CNN when I'm not watching.
"You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas...on the taxpayer’s dime." Barack Obama
Noel, di...did you just
Submitted by megax5000 on Sun, 05/06/2012 - 3:17am.
Noel, di...did you just attribute the unemployment rate in January of 2009, to Obama, despite you yourself noting that he was sworn in on January 20? Also noting that he didn't even sign his first bill until February?
I mean, if you want to be absolutely super technical, that was indeed Obama's first month, but that's about it.