Earth to Media: Unemployment Numbers Are Like Golf Scores — the Lower the Better

It’s another weekend here in the land of the unemployed/underemployed and the latest jobs report is due. Last month the unemployment number held steady at 9.7%. Today the news is not good –– unemployment has jumped up to 9.9% — not good, unless you are working in the Mainstream Media or the White House, then it’s great news.

If reality is the biggest success in TV these days then the news departments of the major networks should consider adding some reality to their programming. Then again, perhaps the news outlets were simply looking for something positive amid all the bed we’ve had of late. From the attempted bombing in Times Square, to the growing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the latest stock market meltdown – the news has not been very happy.

Or maybe the MSM believes that cheerleading has been added to the definition of journalism.

A quick scan of MSNBC’s website and one is hard pressed to find a mention of the growing number of Americans who are unemployed; instead there is an item stating “U.S. economy adds 290,000 jobs, most in four years.”

Over at CNN.com you have to go down nine items before the jobs data is mentioned and there again the fact of the increasing unemployment seems to have been missed as CNN wants us to know “U.S. gains 290,000 jobs.”

Wow! That sounds great!

But what about the increase in the unemployment number? How can we have a four year high when it comes to the increase of jobs created and then see the number of people who are not working is on the rise? It’s mystifying, but fortunately we have CBS Marketwatch to explain it all to us.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 9.9% from 9.7% owing to a big increase in the labor force.

What? Huh? We had a “big increase in the labor force” in April? How did that happen? College grads have not been released into the labor pool and we did not have some spike in immigration. So how did the labor force grow?

Couldn’t have been all those temporary census workers, could it?

While I am happy to see that almost 300,000 folks found suitable employment last month, it does not thrill me to hear that the ranks of my unemployed/underemployed brothers and sisters have again increased to nearly 10%. Neither do I need it hidden from me or sugar-coated by a media that by now has forfeited all claims to objectivity, and instead functions as a wholly owned subsidiary of the White House spin machine.