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Libya's four-day streak as Story of the Day was broken by the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly release of data on the state of the job market. ABC and CBS, with substitute anchor Erica Hill, both led with the improving unemployment picture. March was the 13th straight month in which private sector hiring had increased and the unemployment rate has fallen to a still-devastating 8.8%. NBC kept its focus on Libya, leading with Jim Maceda's report from Tripoli, a city buzzing with rumors that Moammar Khadafy's regime may fail: he is so spooked by the prospect of defections that all major government officials are now shadowed by a minder.

Each of the three newscasts chose a different angle on the unemployment report: ABC's Matt Gutman chose the positive, showing new hiring in Florida; CBS' Anthony Mason chose the negative, with employers going out of their way not to offer work to the long-term unemployed: Those Not Currently Employed Need Not Apply. Here at Tyndall Report, we encourage the explainer as a format. John Yang did a neat job at NBC laying out the methodology at the BLS, concluding with the depressing insight that this improving jobs statistic is an artifact of the lowest rate of participation in the labor force in more than a quarter of a century.

Andrew Tyndall 4/5/11 5:01:20 pm

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