Press Virtually Ignores Joe Biden's '400 Jobs Lost a Day' Louisiana Whopper

Did you hear the one about Joe Biden claiming that Louisiana under Governor Bobby Jindal is losing 400 jobs a day?

Probably not. A search at the Washington Post on "Biden 400 jobs Louisiana" (not in quotes) came back with no results. No relevant results were returned with the same searches done at the New York Times and the LA Times.

The math-challenged Biden, who infamously said during the presidential campaign that the word "jobs" has three letters (maybe you don't know about that one either), made this false claim Wednesday morning, and almost no one noticed.

One exception was TV station KSLA, which filed this report (related but not identically scripted video can be found at link; direct link to vid is here). Reporter Fred Childress's "Fact Check" told us that Biden isn't merely wrong; the Bayou State actually gained seasonally adjusted jobs in December:

Reality check for Vice President Joe Biden

In giving the republican response to President Obama's speech Tuesday night, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal pointed out fundamental differences in how republicans and democrats see the economy.

Wednesday morning on the CBS Early Show, Vice President Joe Biden asked, "But what I don't understand from Governor Jindal is what would he do? In Louisiana, there's 400 people a day losing their jobs. What's he doing?"

But that claim is wrong if you look at the numbers from the Louisiana Workforce Commission.

"In December, Louisiana was the only state in the nation besides the District of Columbia, according to the national press release, that added employment over the month," said Patty Granier with the Louisiana Workforce Commission.

"The state gained 3,700 jobs for the seasonally adjusted employment," Granier said of the most recent figures.

Those numbers are available on Louisiana's employment website, laworks.net.

The male in-studio anchor appeared to be a bit exasperated after Childress's presentation, saying, "You need to get the numbers right, Mr. Vice President."

If he can't count to four, it's not surprising that Joe Biden has a harder time with 400 (ah, there's the excuse; "everybody know he's a dummy, so it's not news").

Coverage at other media outlets was clearly sparse. A Google News search on [Biden "400 jobs"] (typed as indicated) came back with only two relevant results. One of them, from ABC's Political Punch blog, showed up as a result only because the Biden gaffe was mentioned in a comment. The other was at Oklahoma's NewsOK web site.

If a Republican Vice President had flubbed as Biden did, I daresay the three newspapers cited above and many more outlets would somehow have found space for it.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.