Two Similar Jobs Reports, Two Different Media Reactions

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Donald Trump and his supporters love to complain about media bias and how this administration is treated differently by the “fake news.” They have a point. When it comes to the monthly jobs reports, for example, the president is treated way better than Joe Biden was.

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced that the economy added 178,000 jobs in March, which is an exceptionally good number for Trump, who once said that a payroll growth of 250,000 per month should be “almost automatic.” For reference, he rarely ever hit that target in his first term (just six times before COVID threw the economy into turmoil in early 2020) and not once since taking office for the second time.

Nevertheless, the often-maligned media celebrated.

“Strong Showing for Job Market in Latest Report,” The New York Times proclaimed, adding that the employment gains were “robust.”

USA Today pointed to a “hiring rebound,” CNBC noted that the “labor market bounced back,” and CNN praised a “higher-than-expected” job growth.

And here is how the folks at Fox News felt about it.

"This is one. Heck. Of a. Report. Folks. Wow!" — the talking heads on Maria Bartiromo's show are nearly orgasmic as the March jobs report comes in stronger than expected pic.twitter.com/qYBV2K9jyq

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 3, 2026

Let’s travel back in time to see how these news outlets covered the BLS report when the economy added 187,000 jobs (the closest comparable number) in July 2023.

CNBC remarked that the figure was “lower than expected,” CNN lamented that “the US jobs market continues its cooldown,” and The New York Times observed that “the pace of US hiring slows but remains solid.”

And what about Fox News?

Well, they were far less enthusiastic about a jobs report that was comparable.

here's Maria Bartiromo and friends searching desperately in real time for something negative to say about the latest solid jobs report pic.twitter.com/4cqlwaob2H

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 4, 2023

To be fair, by Biden’s standards, the 187,000 jobs added were below average and lagged slightly behind expectations.

For Trump, on the other hand, adding 178,000 payrolls in one month is a stellar achievement.

Still, we can’t help but notice that the media is treating the current president’s “accomplishments” differently than those of his predecessor.

This isn’t an isolated incident either.

In 2019, when the economy added 196,000 jobs in March, The New York Times hailed this as a “return to solid growth,” the Washington Post found “signs of a spring bounce” in those figures, and CNN hailed the “strong number.”

And, you guessed it, over at Fox News, they celebrated the “excellent news.”

So, does this mean that the media is generally favoring Trump? No, of course not. However, in addition to sane-washing his bizarre comments and behavior, many news outlets are bending over backwards to praising even his modest accomplishments in order not to be accused of bias.

As an aside, when doing research for this article, we found this nugget from current Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1114188954423693312

Times sure have changed since that tweet (and since 196,000 jobs were awesome news, before 187,000 jobs weren’t, until 178,000 added payrolls were a major achievement again).