White House Praises Misleading Economic Statistics.

Washington, DC (BFBE): White House officials praised the efforts of the news media today in their systematic attempts to portray the current state of the economy in a positive light.

"Despite all evidence to the contrary," Mindy Popinjay, Special Economic Adviser to the Obama White House, confided to BFBE, "the media is pulling off the impossible; making people think the economy is doing anything but imploding."

Popinjay praises the media's use of misleading statistics, "The media is really doing yeoman's service for us on this one. Just look at the array of complete statistical contradictions and fallacies they managed to pull off.

"Last month, gas prices went up 40 cents a gallon in many places around the country. Just what the American people need when so many people are out of work and times are tough. If Bush was in office, everyone would be mad and the media would be doing in depth reports on bread lines and soup kitchens in Trenton. But, not now! No, they took the brave step of ignoring the rise and showing a statistic that gas prices are LOWER right now than they were last year at this time. KA-KLAM! Now, the public thinks a 20% rise in gas prices during a time of high unemployment is a good thing!

"Now, let's take a look at another terrible statistic. Last week, the number of new unemployment claims was something like 613,000. It was probably WAY higher than that, but we'll just wait a few weeks to 'adjust' it after everyone's forgot about it. Now, if the media would use the gas logic to this statistic, that is comparing it to last year, people might notice that this number has doubled and there are millions upon millions of newly unemployed workers out there is little or no prospect of finding work. So, instead, they choose to look at how last week's numbers are about 10,000 lower than the week before. Granted, that still means 1.2 million people lost their jobs in two weeks, but SHA-WING! It's still lower, and that's all the media is talking about."

Popinjay closed with praising the news media's objectivity, "You really have to hand it to our news corps. No matter what the truth is, all they are saying is 'better, better, better.' You can not be more objective than that. My guess is you will not need to be a mind reader as to who is going to be at the top of the list for billions of dollars in tax payer dollars when the next 'great for the economy' bailout happens."