RUSH: It’s time now, folks, for another installment in the monthly ‘Better Than Expected’ series from the Drive-By Media. This time, it’s job growth. Headline from Jeannine Aversa, AP economics writer: ‘Job Growth Is Better-Than-Expected.’ What is this, the sixth or seventh straight month where all the experts have been stunned by economic news? ‘Employers boosted payrolls by a better than expected 132,000 jobs in June, enough to keep the unemployment rate at a relatively low…’ Relatively low! (Laughing.) It’s record low! (Laughing.) You just have to love these people. Everybody’s being exposed to the way they do things and they don’t get it! They continue. They refuse to adapt. ‘…better than expected 132,000 jobs…relatively low unemployment rate at 4.5%. It was another sign that the economy is snapping out of a nearly year-long sluggish spell.’ A nearly year-long sluggish spell? I love this part of the article, too. It says, ‘Despite the healthy jobs market and the budding rebound the public is giving President Bush low marks for his economic stewardship.’ Oh! Well, I’m so surprised. The media spend 30 days a month reporting how bad everything is going, then on the 31st day of the month they write the CYA, the ‘economy’s getting better than expected’ story, and it’s on to the next four straight weeks of hand-wringing. It’s all about creating a perception of disaster, imminent doom, and crisis. They follow up that with copious polling to see how well they’re doing at creating that perception. You know, polls are the quality control tests that the Drive-Bys use to gauge how well they’re ‘managing the news,’ and ‘managing the news’ is exactly what they do. That phrase comes from this guy in the Buffalo News. He had a newspaper column the other day that we read to you about the immigration bill and how the old media got trampled here, and the new media ran away with it, and they gotta figure out now — the old Drive-Bys have to figure out — how they’re going to ‘manage the news of the presidential race.’ Whether it was unwittingly done or not, that’s one of the best eye-openers as to how people in the Drive-By Media view their jobs that I’ve ever seen: ‘manage the news.’ So all polls are, for the most part, are the quality control tests that the Drive-Bys use to gauge how well they’re managing the news. ‘Let’s say they spend 30 days just beating the garbage out of the economy, just ripping it to shreds. Then they go out and do a poll: ‘How’s Bush doing on the economy?” and the poll says, ‘Bush sucks on the economy,’ and the Drive-Bys say, ‘See? We’ve been managing the news well. We’re doing a damn good job of creating a negative perception where none exists.’ That’s exactly how it works.