During a segment on Tuesday criticizing the Obama administration for its messaging on the economy, a Fox & Friends graphic claimed that the "real unemployment rate" had increased from 7.8% in 2009 to 14.7% now.
However, the graphic -- which showed the rate nearly doubling since Obama took office -- was actually comparing today's "real unemployment rate" with 2009's official unemployment rate.
After being presented with the Fox graphic, Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham said: "Other than Fox News, where are you really seeing those statistics?" Indeed, who else has faux news?
The most recent official unemployment rate is 8.1, which is only 0.3 percent higher, and not nearly enough to lead to mass right-wing nut hysteria on the internets.
The so-called "real" unemployment figure, which also includes part-timers looking for full-time work, currently stands at 14.7 percent and has been steadily declining for the past three years.
When Media Matters pointed out this inconvenient fact, "Fox & Friends" hosts, Brian Kilmeade and Gretchen Carlson, were forced to acknowledge their *cough* "mistake."
KILMEADE: Hey, I want to clarify a graphic we used on the show yesterday. We were comparing the real unemployment rate to when Obama took office -- President Obama took office. The real rate includes those working part-time because of economic reasons.
CARLSON: So the real unemployment rate now 14.7 percent. The percentage when the president took office in 2009, should have read 14.2 percent, not 7.8 percent.
No mention of Media Matters when the um, "clarification" was made.
