ABC's Gibson Toes White House Line About How It Will 'Save or Create' Jobs

Just two months after the Congress and the White House collaborated to pass a $787-billion stimulus bill into law, its proponents are hailing it as a victory and one network has played along.

The May 11 broadcast of ABC’s “World News with Charles Gibson” cited a report from the President’s Council of Economic Advisors [1] claiming the stimulus would “save or create”1.5 million jobs by the end of 2009.

“Meanwhile, a new report estimates the economic stimulus bill passed earlier this year will save or create one-and-a-half million jobs this year,” Gibson said.

The problem – the jobs weren’t targeted where most needed.

“But an Associated Press survey indicates few of those jobs will be created in communities with the highest unemployment rates,” Gibson said.

However, there’s also a  problem with the Obama administration’s math according to a May 11 post [2] on the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) blog titled “1.9 Million Jobs Lost Under Obama – No Matter How You Slice it.”

“The U.S. has lost at least 1.9 million jobs since President Barack Obama took office.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the total number of jobs nationwide fell from 134.3 million at the end of January to 132.4 million at the end of April,” ATR’s John Kartch wrote. “Meanwhile, Obama and his economic advisors have resorted to the invention of highly questionable new metrics such as the number of “saved” jobs and – making its debut today -- the number of ‘job-years’ created.”

Kartch’s post also pointed out the Sen. Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, debunked the concept of a “saved” job in a March 4 hearing [3] that featured testimony from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

"You created a situation where you cannot be wrong,” Baucus said. “If the economy loses 2 million jobs over the next few years, you can say yes, but it would've lost 5.5 million jobs. If we create a million jobs, you can say, well, it would have lost 2.5 million jobs. You've given yourself complete leverage where you cannot be wrong, because you can take any scenario and make yourself look correct."