You can take a look at the reading assignments below for a link to the blog from which I gathered this information.  Presenting it here in my own insensitive and irritating style: 

I’m going to present you with two sets of headlines.  One set is from January of 2004.  At that time the unemployment rate had dropped to 5.7%.  President George W. Bush was also just getting his reelection campaign cranked up.

The other set of headlines is from just last week, when we got the incredibly exciting news that the unemployment rate had dropped to 8.6  Oh … almost forgot.  The second set of headlines came as Obama was getting his reelection campaign really cranked up. 

OK .. here are the two sets of headlines.  Can you tell me which was from 2004 and which was from last week? By the way … each headline is a link so you can check the stories for yourself. 

Oh well .. that wasn’t much of a test, was it .. not with the Obama name spread across the place and the reference to the 8.6% rate.  But take a good look at the headlines to see how the news was treated. 

Of particular interest are three of the headlines in the Bush column:

• “Frustrated Job Seekers Cause Jobless Rate to Drop”
• “Low Jobless Rate Reflects Lost Hope”
• “US Jobless Rate Drops But For Wrong Reasons”

You see, when the unemployment rate dropped to 5.7% under Bush the stories indicate that 310,000 people had left the workforce.  Since they were no longer either working or looking for jobs, they simply weren’t counted in the unemployment numbers. 

But look at the headlines for 2011!  We have phrases like “Raising Hopes,” “Crow About,” “Good News,” and “Boost Obama.”  The unemployment rate drops to 5.7% under Bush and we see the words “Lost Hope”, “Frustrated Job Seekers” and “Jobless Recovery.” “But,” you say, “310,000 people left the workforce when those Bush numbers were reported.”  Well, you’re right.  But do you also know that the very same government stats that brought us the 8.6% unemployment rate that is “Raising Hopes” showed that 315,000 people left the workforce?

Come on, folks. Wake up and smell the bias! 

• A 5.7% unemployment rate with 300,000 people leaving the workplace equals “Lost Hope.”
• An 8.6% unemployment rate with 315,000 people leaving the workplace equals “Raising Hopes.” 

I really don’t think I need to say anything more here.  My job is done.  Congrats, Brock (the author of the blog linked below.) Good catch.