"Unemployed, Underemployed Look to Jobs Summit for Help" is posted on ABC News's Web site today. Authored by senior Washington correspondent John Cochran, the piece is notable in that nothing in it supports the headline. Cochran writes:
Boosting confidence is at the top of President Obama's list at the Jobs Summit he is scheduled to host on Thursday. The invitation list includes business leaders, mayors, academics, and experts from the green jobs sector.
They will consider many proposals to boost the economy including:
More stimulus money for construction projects;
rewards for firms that hire more workers;
more steps to ease credit;
extending unemployment benefits through 2010.
But where are the unemployed and underemployed people who are looking to Obama's meeting for help? Only two individuals are quoted in the article. One is a man who's taken a temporary job after being laid off. He's grateful for the chance, but understandably says "my focus remains to become a fulltime employee as soon as possible."
The other is the chief economist at Moody's Economy.com, who disagrees with those who "argue that enough has already been spent to try to jumpstart the economy." He says, "We need to bring those deficits down, but that's not something we need to do in the near term."
Perhaps there are some naive unemployed folks who are looking to Obama's "jobs summit" for help. If so, however, ABC News doesn't identify a single one of them.
