Media Spin on Unemployment

The unemployment rate right now is about 9%. The last time it was this high was under Reagan. Yet the media have spun the meaning of the numbers in exact opposite ways:

• When Reagan was president journalists showed unemployed families living out of their cars under a bridge in Texas and quoted Democrats or union leaders’ attacks on the president’s “wicked” and “sadistic” fiscal policies. Under Obama, these journalists have gone to great lengths to spin rising unemployment by finding “positive trends” in the job losses, even focusing on as few as 25 jobs being “saved” by the economic stimulus package.


• Here's how NBC did a report on unemployment under Reagan: "The lines for free food at food banks are four times what they were six months ago," NBC’s Don Oliver told Nightly News viewers. Oliver’s report focused on the "new poor" and the emotional effects of unemployment, including suicide and battering. For Obama? ABC’s George Stephanopoulos looked on the bright side for Obama Sept. 4, 2009, telling viewers, “the unemployment rate nears 10 percent, but the numbers aren’t all bad.”


• An overwhelming majority of stories mentioning the Reagan administration were negative 91 percent (20 out of 22) while only 7 percent (1 out of 15) of Obama administration mentions were negative. Additionally, Obama mentions were favorable 87 percent of the time, but there were zero positive mentions of Reagan.


• Unemployment stories in 1982 mentioned the Reagan administration 71 percent of the time (22 out of 31), but 2009 stories mentioned the Obama administration only 40 percent of the time (14 out of 35).


• The unemployment rate reached 9.4 percent under Reagan and Obama. But ABC’s Charles Gibson covered the identical rate very differently in 1982 than in 2009. Gibson told viewers May 7, 1982, "[T]here really isn’t any good news in the statistics. All the numbers are bad." But by 2009, Gibson had turned into an optimist citing "good news" June 5 and "hope the economy may be finally turning the corner" Aug. 7.

Now, I ask you, do you still believe the media are anything but complicit with Obama? They will not on their lives post bad things about Obama.

The original article is here.