Yes, you read that right: CBS -- not Fox News -- says the White House is fudging stimulus jobs numbers to bolster claims that Barack Obama's $787 billion created or saved thousands of jobs.
CBS News and Katie Couric have doubts about the Obama administration's jobs numbers. That doesn't bode well for Obama because Katie and CBS news are supposed to be in Obama's corner.
On Thursday's CBS Evening News, Couric reports on the Stimulus jobs creation numbers, "Earlier this year, the president claimed it would create or save three million jobs. There are some questions about how many it may have created so far."
CBS CORRESPONDENT REID: At a small college in Georgia, $100,000 in stimulus funds paid for trucks for students to practice for commercial driver`s licenses. Another $100,000 went for a modular classroom. The school reported to the government that 280 jobs were created.
In reality, not even close. That's the number of students who benefited. It has nothing to do with jobs.
In Cocoa, Florida, a childcare center reported 129 jobs created by a stimulus grant. In fact, no jobs were created. The money was really used to increase the compensation and benefits of 129 existing employees.
Overall, it turns out the administration's initial stimulus jobs report contained hundreds of errors as first reported by the Associated Press. Critics say if the kinds of errors found in that earlier report are repeated in Friday's much more extensive job creation survey, it won't be worth the paper it's printed on.
CRAIG JENNINGS: We have, I think, a rough estimate at best. And at worst, these numbers are next to useless.
