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.
