CNN buries Joe Biden's dismal jobs report on its website but highlights story on Trump's White House lawn
CNN has been accused of prioritizing the “headache” apparently caused by former president Donald Trump's White House lawn over current President Joe Biden's disappointing jobs report. A May 8 Fox News report shared a screenshot of the CNN homepage, making a case for this assertion.
“The 'headache' Trump left behind for Biden on the White House lawn,” a report authored by Kate Bennett and Maegan Vazquez notes: “The White House was in need of substantial upgrades to its future security apparatus, updates that would include digging deeply and extensively, from the upper main driveway to the lower, across acres of pristine green grass.”
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This project reportedly initially landed on Trump's desk. “But the Trumps weren't so inclined. They didn't want the noise and, Melania Trump in particular, wanted to avoid disrupting the aesthetics on the back lawn, where there could perhaps be events. The first couple decided to "pass it to the next guy," said one of the people familiar,” the report said.
As per Fox News, the April jobs report that was released on Friday, May 7, saw just 2,66,000 jobs created and a rise in unemployment while economists expected roughly one million jobs to be created amid the country's economic recovery, was buried on the website. The top story that day seemed to highlight the lawn fiasco more than the jobs report. Other major headlines on the screengrab of the page included "Texas House passes election overhaul bill", "How should vaccinated parents navigate this summer? A doctor's advice", and "Federal grand jury indicts four ex-Minneapolis police officers in George Floyd's death".
As per the jobs report, the unemployment rate rose for the first time since April 2020. The jobless rate rose slightly to 6.1 percent, as the labor force grew faster than the number of jobs. “It turns out it’s easier to put an economy into a coma than wake it up,” Diane Swonk, chief economist for the accounting firm Grant Thornton told The New York Times. The Times noted in its analysis of the report that the largest job gains in April were in leisure and hospitality, two industries that had been particularly hard-hit during the pandemic. “More dining out may mean less dining in though. So as the number of restaurant workers rose, the number of grocery store clerks and couriers declined,” the Times noted.
However, some said that the real problem was poorly paid jobs with shifting schedules, few benefits and insufficient safety protocols. “The shortage of restaurant workers we are seeing across the country is not a labor-shortage problem; it’s a wage-shortage problem,” Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage, a minimum-wage advocacy group, told the Times. “It’s understandable, it’s going to take some time,” said Diane Lim, an economist who has worked at the White House. “You’re not just going to snap your fingers and get everyone back to work.”
