Fox News mocked for 'desperately' trying to negatively spin 'blockbuster' jobs report

The propagandists at Fox News are trying to find ways to spin Friday’s excellent jobs report and economic news into an attack on President Joe Biden and Democrats. It’s not going well for them.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the July jobs numbers Friday morning as scheduled.

CNN called it a “massive jobs surprise.” Even CNBC’s conservative editor Rick Santelli, who sparked the Tea Party movement with an on-air rant, heralded the jobs report as “a whopper.”

Analysts overall expected the report to find about 258,000 new jobs created, but it was more than double that, with 528,000 new jobs. Unemployment dropped slightly to 3.5%, which is far below the 5% mark economists used to use as a marker of “full employment.”

READ MORE: ‘Ain’t No Recession’: Economists Praise ‘Huge’ Employment Numbers – ‘We’re Back, Baby’

Economists cheered the results, with even those often more pessimistic finding the jobs report excellent news. Overall, many made clear there is no recession, and predicted inflation will come under control as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates, and as the price of gas has dropped tremendously, with some stations now selling at under $3.00 a gallon.

Meanwhile, Fox News decided to use the White House’s prediction that the jobs numbers would not be great against them.

The Daily Beast’s media reporter Justin Baragona posted a screenshot of Fox News’s chyron that blasts the White House for not getting the estimate right. A casual observer, say, in an airport, would likely assume the jobs report was bad and blame the Biden administration.

It reads: “WH Misses Forecast on Lower July Jobs Growth.”

Media Matters’ Eric Kleefeld notes how Fox News Business’s Larry Kudlow, a former Trump top advisor, and former Trump advisor Kevin Hassett both predicted the jobs number would come in exactly the same as what the Biden White House predicted, and were preparing since Thursday for bad news: Public Notice’s Aaron Rupar says Fox News is suggesting the jobs report is too good:

Attorney Brad Moss, a frequent social media commenter, observed: “Fox News is desperately trying to spin this blockbuster jobs report against Biden. If Trump was in office, they’d be running celebration videos complete with champagne.”

Just after 8:30 AM ET when the report was released “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade immediately mocked President Joe Biden as they shared the numbers.

Fox News Business’ Charles Payne was on set to discuss the report. Looking for the negative spin he announced that the jobs number was the best since March, adding the numbers had “been trending lower since March sequentially.”

Begrudgingly admitting “it’s a really good number,” he pivoted to “participation” in the workforce. he called it “amazing that we have not gotten back up to the same level of participation” since before COVID.

But as CNBC reported: “private sector payrolls are now higher than the February 2020 level, just before the pandemic declaration.”