Sun Rises In East. AP Does Anti-Democratic Smear Job.
Posted by Phoenix Woman on October 29, 2009
As you all probably know by now, the Associated Press — whose Washington, DC bureau chief is none other than Ron Fournier, good friend of Bush’s brain Karl Rove and John McCain’s de facto (and very nearly official) press secretary — did a smear job on President Obama’s stimulus spending, claiming it produced far fewer jobs than the White House says it has.
What the AP won’t tell us is that the reports they attacked didn’t come from the Feds, but from governors, mayors, county executives, private businesses and community organizations across the country. The reports that have been posted to date are not complete, but being posted as they are reviewed by an independent oversight body, a process that takes three weeks.
Here’s the scoop on the biggest ‘error’ the AP found:
“A Colorado company said it created 4,231 jobs with the help of President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan. The real number: fewer than 1,000.”
FACT: The very first example AP cites was already corrected more than a week ago as part of the twenty-day review process and the change is in the final data posting being prepared for Friday. This item represents over 3,000 – or 60 percent – of the “nearly 5,000 jobs” AP uses to try to make its argument.
FACT: The company in question actually did hire more than 4,000 workers – but because the work was not full time, full year work, the rigorous standards at Recovery.gov don’t count it as 4,000 workers. AP is wrong in saying that 4,000 workers is not a “real” number: 4,000 people got paychecks and got work thanks to the Recovery Act. The posting was erroneous because our higher standards only count the equivalent of full-time, full-year jobs as jobs “created or saved.”
FACT: All recipients were given through October 30th to clarify and confirm their data – including those linked to federal contracts. Any conclusions drawn about the quality of that small portion of data as it was posted two weeks ago are simply premature.
Similar boo-boos can be found all through the AP’s attempted takedown. Go check it out.
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