would be the head line had he won.
Best Jobs Numbers Since 1999, But CBS
and NBC Stress Negative
Emphasizing the negative. The unemployment numbers released on Friday exhibited a gain of 157,000 jobs in December for a total of 2.2 million jobs during the year, the best showing since 1999. ABC's World News Tonight didn't mention the good news while CBS and NBC stressed the negative. CBS Evening News anchor John Roberts noted that the 2.2 million new jobs were "about 400,000 short of what the White House predicted a year ago" and, on the NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams pointed out how "Wall Street wasn't impressed. The Dow was down almost 19 points. NASDAQ was down as well."
Neither network reported how the much-predicted job losses during the Bush years have now been nearly eliminated. Washington Post reporters Nell Henderson and Amy Joyce noted in their January 8 story:
"At the recent low-point for the job count, in August 2003, the nation had 2.7 million fewer jobs than on the eve of the recession. By last month, that deficit had been shaved to 122,000. That gap could be fully erased by the end of this month, according to many forecasts, thwarting Democrats' prediction during the presidential campaign that Bush would be the first U.S. President since Herbert Hoover to preside over a net national job loss in one term." For the article in full:
http://www.washingtonpost.com Indeed, that was the Democratic line during the campaign, a line some in the media eagerly picked up. On the October 8 CBS Evening News, for instance, Dan Rather intoned:
"While the economy has created nearly two million jobs in the past year, President Bush still goes into the election with 821,000 fewer jobs in the nation than when he took office. It's the first net job loss on a President's watch since Herbert Hoover during the Great Depression of the 1930s. CBS's Jim Axelrod reports Senator Kerry is ready to play that up in tonight's town meeting face-off."
After 47 months of unemployment data, Bush is just 122,000 jobs short now of breaking even with the report for January due in early February. And as Saturday's New York Times story noted, that "job creation grew at a stronger pace than originally estimated in October and November; the Labor Department, with further information from companies, increased its estimate for those two months by 34,000 jobs."
The short item read by John Roberts on the January 7 CBS Evening News: "About the U.S. economy now, President Bush applauded today's jobs report. It shows unemployment holding steady last month at 5.4 percent as the economy created 157,000 jobs. For all of 2004, it's 2.2 million new jobs, the best showing in five years. It's about 400,000 short of what the White House predicted a year ago, though."
On the NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams announced: "And there is news on the American economy tonight, specifically the jobs report for the month of December. Employers added 157,000 workers to their payrolls last month. The unemployment rate, by the way, held steady at 5.4 percent. December's payroll additions bring the total number of jobs added for the year now to 2.2 million. That's the best showing in five years. President Bush called all this a very positive set of numbers, but Wall Street wasn't impressed. The Dow was down almost 19 points. NASDAQ was down as well. And for this first week of the new year, stocks lost ground overall. The Dow was off 179 points. NASDAQ was down almost 87. That's about four percent."
