One of the lead articles on Yahoo News today has the link “Obama says stimulus package saved or created 150,000 jobs”. If you read the actual article you learn that this figure is an estimate based on hypothetical numbers of jobs that would have been lost had there not been a stimulus package, not any real job data.
In other words, its a totally made up number. Oh, I’m sure there were economic forecasts that went into making that number, but the thing about economic forecasts is that depending on the assumptions you make, you can get pretty much any outcome. Just look at models of supply side economics and how they parametrize the Laffer curve. The number is meaningless, it might as well be a wild guess. And yes, the media blindly reports it because its said by the president. I got annoyed when the media parroted Bush (e.g. WMDs in Iraq, scientists dispute global warming…), and I’m annoyed when they do it with Obama.
Hey media: stop giving the oval office free reign to spin the truth beyond what reasonable evidence affords. Stop publicizing fabricated stories. Or, if you’re going to spread information without asking sources to back up their claims, please note that I saved 10,000 jobs this year, foiled half a dozen terror plots, and singlehandedly prevented an incredibly virulent pandemic of llama flu that would have killed half the world’s population (you’ve never heard of it because I was successful in preventing it).
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