The Washington Post‘s editors stealthily changed the headline of a pessimistic article about the economy once it was made ridiculous by the good news in President Donald Trump’s April economic report.
The early morning pessimistic headline on the Post‘s website declared that “Trump faces string of setbacks to his efforts to juice U.S. economy.”
But that headline was made ridiculous by the morning’s good economic news, which editors posted at 8:34 am. The good-news headline declared “U.S. 263,000 jobs in April, beating expectations as record hiring streak continues.” The good-news article said:
The U.S. economy added 263,000 jobs in April, notching a record 103 straight months of job gains and signaling the current economic expansion shows little sign of stalling.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent, the Labor Department said Friday, the lowest since 1969. The official unemployment rate has been at or below 4 percent for more than a year.
The contradictory pair of pessimistic and positive headlines were kept on the home page for at least 24 minutes.
But by 9:39 the Washington Post‘s editors dropped the “juice” word, and posted a new front-page headline to the pessimistic article: “Trump faces string of setbacks to his efforts to intervene in U.S. economy.”
The changed headline appears under the newspaper’s masthead, which declares that “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”
The pessimistic article still touts several problems for Trump’s management of the economy:
Mounting GOP opposition torpedoed conservative commentator Stephen Moore’s candidacy as a Federal Reserve Board governor Thursday, the latest in a string of setbacks that reveal hardening limitations on President Trump’s attempts to intervene in the economy.
Despite his efforts, Trump has failed to arrest rising gasoline prices and demonstrated little influence over Senate Republicans and Fed officials when he has demanded leaders heed his directives for managing the global economy.
…
Trump’s effort to plant Moore on the Fed board was another in a string of attempts to use executive authority and the bully pulpit in ways that could goose the economy heading into the 2020 election.
But the Post’s negative waves were overcome by the good news. Breitbart News reported the April numbers:
The U.S. economy created 263,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate dropped to 3.6 percent, the Labor Department said Friday.
That far exceeded the 180,000 estimated by economists surveyed by Econoday and follows a better than expected surge in April. Economists had expected the unemployment rate to hold steady at 3.8 percent.
Unemployment is at the lowest level since December 1969 when it hit 3.5 percent.
…
he good news on wages continued in April as well. Average hourly earnings rose by 6 cents to $27.77. Over the year, average hourly earnings have increased by 3.2 percent. Inflation is running at 1.5 percent, so real average hourly earnings have gone up by 1.7 percent.
Read it all here.
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