NewsBusters' Brent Baker and Dan Gainor each did a fine job chronicling Old Media's weak coverage of yesterday's solid September Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Here's another Old Media non-followup on yesterday's news: Failure to get a reaction from two Democratic presidential candidates who had harsh things to say a month ago when August's weak employment report was released.
That August report showed a loss of 4,000 jobs. The Old Media "recession worries" chorus was deafening. August's job-increase number was revised upward to a pickup of 89,000 as part of yesterday's report. As noted by Baker and Gainor, Old Media reaction to that revision was relatively muted. I also don't see that anyone in Old Media pointed out that the total new-jobs increase, including prior revisions, was a gain of 228,000 jobs (September's initial +110,000 pickup, August's +93,000 revision, and a +25,000 revision to July).
The two leading Democratic presidential candidates opportunistically jumped on that initial August report and its supposed implications in early September, reporter Edmund Andrews noted in a New York Times article:
Democratic candidates used the first monthly decline in employment in four years to attack Mr. Bush. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois said Mr. Bush’s economic policies demonstrated his “failure to lead."
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York said the jobs data proved the administration’s strategy was "not working for working Americans."
With the reported change, one would logcially think (in vain, of course) that Obama might praise the president's leadership, and that Mrs. Clinton might inform us that the administration's strategy is indeed working. Failing that, one would hope that Old Media reporters might at least question the candidates' statements from last month, and ask them for "clarifications."
Don't wait by the computer for those clarifications to appear.
Related posts are at BizzyBlog.com and the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Wide Open blog.
—Tom Blumer is president of a training and development company in Mason, Ohio, and is a contributing editor to NewsBusters
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Republican failure to lead
October 6, 2007 - 12:46 ET by ThisnThatI don't care about the media; I don't care about the Dims.
But I do care about what our republican leadership team has to say about these Dim attacks and hypocricy. I'm not the brightest bulb in the socket, but I can tell you that the Republicans have a whole boatload of attack material readily available, and I don't see any of them using it.
Any of them!
They had better get on the ball. I want to hear attack after attack after attack -- and they can do this simply by telling the truth. Why don't they? What's holding them back?
-- Dumbfounded.
___________________________________
If you can read this, thank a teacher. If it is in English, thank a Soldier. - My barber
"I want to hear attack
October 6, 2007 - 13:11 ET by shawn228"I want to hear attack after attack after attack"
Very hard to do when lately they hear them defend after defend after defend. They have to do more than attack T& T. They have to prove to people why they deserve their vote, not just attacks on the opponent.
Why don't they? What's
October 6, 2007 - 16:45 ET by motherbeltWhy don't they? What's holding them back?
Lack of testosterone?
They always want to "take the high road." Well, let me tell you guys something: the high road leads right off a cliff.
If the situation were reversed, they would be beating it like a drum.
Republicans never, never learn.
Heck, if the MSM won't
October 6, 2007 - 13:38 ET by SMGalbraithHeck, if the MSM won't admit error, I'm doubtful that they'll ask for corrections from Obama and Clinton.
Okay, perhaps a correction and mention on page A-43 right next to the story on a mudslide in a Bulgarian town that partially destroyed a goatherding community.
Hell, I'll be glad for just that.
SMG
Initial Data Always Wrong
October 8, 2007 - 17:16 ET by deerjerkydaveThe initial economic data is always wrong. I see this pattern over and over. And frequently the revisions show much better numbers than the initial reports. Big Media is predictable: trumpet the lack luster initial data, and whisper the actual improved data. Bad economic news fits their agenda and so it hits the front page. Good news is back page because these "journalists" don't want to be labeled "Bush-bots" for saying something positive under the Bush administrative.
Message to Big Media: Democrats control both houses of congress, its okay to say good things about the Bush economy again!