Friday, September 01, 2006

Still strong – From Fox News “Economy Adds 128,000 Jobs in August, Unemployment Dips to 4.7% as Economy Shows Lingering Strength”: “Hiring perked up in August as employers added 128,000 jobs, pulling down the unemployment rate to 4.7 percent, sending a Labor Day message that the economic expansion still has staying power.”

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fox News said that, huh? Quite the shocker. Oddly, those deranged bombthrowers at the Associated Press saw the identical data, and came up with "...flashed a Labor Day weekend message that the slowing economy isn't in danger of fizzling out." Why do they hate America?

Expansion, slowing, tomato, tom-ah-to, higher employment, collapsing housing market, potato, po-tah-toe. Those half-full Fox Newsers may not know the art of economics, but they sure know what they like.

"Goldilocks may be coming. The economy is not too hot nor too cold," observed Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at LaSalle Bank.

What? A measured response? Get that crackpot out of my news cycle!

Anonymous said...

"Lingering strength" is a nice euphemism for the less acceptable "the boom continues unabated."

Anonymous said...

Or, the less acceptable "patient is clinging to life."

And yet somehow I can't help but think that the AP's moderate interpretation of mixed signals is the most accurate fit for an economy that has sputtered, stalled, or bounded forward for years, depending on which indicator you're looking at, and which month it happens to be. Your pom-pom shaking mileage may vary.

Anonymous said...

???

If you click on the link, you'll see that the Fox News linked to an Associated Press story.

Thanks for playing.

Anonymous said...

Yes, and Fox News REWROTE the AP copy. I hadn't even noticed that. Thanks for failing.

In fact, the comparisons are so wonderful, I think I'll post some for you!

Fox headline: Economy Adds 128,000 Jobs in August, Unemployment Dips to 4.7% as Economy Shows Lingering Strength
AP headline: U.S. Unemployment Rate Slides in August

AP paragraph: The latest snapshot, released by the Labor Department on Friday, was a bit brighter than expected and eased some fears that the economy - weighed down by a housing slump - might tip into recession.
Fox paragraph: The latest snapshot, released by the Labor Department Friday, was a bit brighter than expected and should ease any fears that the expansion that began in late 2001 is not in danger of fizzling out.

Fox actually took pieces of two different versions of the AP article and combined them, deleted the bad words, and added their own cheerleading!

AP paragraph begins: "Still, there are obvious weak spots. Construction spending plunged..."
Fox: Deleted the entire paragraph.

There's more, but you get the idea. God, that's funny stuff.

Anonymous said...

"We rewrite, you decide!"