Fox's Scott misled on Bush's "job gains" while suggesting media unfairly saying "this is the Bush economy"
Jon Scott misleadingly asserted that "there were month after month after month of job gains in the Bush administration. And yet ... this is the Bush economy as portrayed in the media." However, in the final year of the Bush administration, the economy lost more than 4 million jobs, and the unemployment rate rose nearly three percentage points.
On the July 11 edition of Fox News' Fox News Watch, host Jon Scott misleadingly asserted that "there were month after month after month of job gains in the Bush administration. And yet, you know, these days, this is the Bush economy as portrayed in the media." However, over the final year of George W. Bush's presidency, the economy lost more than 4 million jobs, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition, the unemployment rate rose from 4.9 percent in January 2008 to 7.6 percent in January 2009, and the employment-population ratio dropped from 62.9 percent in January 2008 to 60.5 percent in January 2009.
Media Matters for America has previously documented other media figures misrepresenting employment numbers under the Bush administration or suggesting that President Obama is to blame for job losses that occurred under Bush or within weeks of Obama taking office.
