MSNBC’s Ari Melber is getting called out for this tweet where he noted, without context, that the AP treated similar jobs numbers in 2018 and 2021 very differently.
Melber wrote, “While the AP reported on the ‘sluggish’ jobs report under President Biden, they called a similar number under Trump ‘robust'”:
While the AP reported on the "sluggish" jobs report under President Biden, they called a similar number under Trump "robust." pic.twitter.com/C2prt0uHZU
— The Beat with Ari Melber 📺 (@TheBeatWithAri) December 6, 2021
And the reason why the headlines are accurate is because the economic conditions and expectations in February 2018 were VERY different than in December 2021:
What this tweet is intentionally leaving out is that the January 2018 jobs report had an expectation of 180k jobs that was exceeded by the 200k added.
This month they expected 500,000 jobs but only added 210k.
I've seen this reposted by big accounts and it's misleading at best. https://t.co/x5ToGeeojr
— Your Friendly Neighborhood Numbersmuncher (@NumbersMuncher) December 7, 2021
But Melber knows this, or at least he should know this. MSNBC itself reported the better-than-expected numbers when the report came out in February 2018:
JUST IN: U.S. economy added 200,000 jobs in January. Unemployment holds at 4.1%
More: https://t.co/MGZwkmD6nM pic.twitter.com/9NQiS4jM2r
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) February 2, 2018
And here’s MSNBC’s headline from a few days ago:
NEW: U.S. economy added 210,000 jobs in November, far below expectations. https://t.co/ZmwlzEGmed
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) December 3, 2021
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If Melber had done even a tiny bit of searching, he’d find that the cropped headlines he shared don’t even tell the whole story. Here’s the AP from February 2018:
U.S. employers added a robust 200,000 jobs in January, and wages rose at the fastest pace in more than eight years. https://t.co/Dw6g9VQg6V
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 2, 2018
And here’s the present day:
BREAKING: America’s employers slowed the pace of their hiring in November, adding 210,000 jobs, the fewest in nearly a year.
The Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate fell sharply to 4.2% from 4.6%. https://t.co/qEGJxN5gfh— The Associated Press (@AP) December 3, 2021
He’s a hack:
Here’s the hugely important context omitted from the tweet below: https://t.co/548hArwZbo
But more broadly, it is truly wild that the professional Left has actually decided to try and make “the media is biased against Biden & treated Trump better” a thing. It’s preposterous. https://t.co/lAAlkbsPIf
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) December 7, 2021
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