At this part in the episode, Senior Communications Director Toby Ziegler tells Press Secretary C.J. Cregg about the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting the CPI increased by 0.7% in one month (could this be info that they released on Jobs Friday?). C.J. is about to go to a press briefing and quickly practices an answer in case a reporter asks about this startling statistic. C.J. and Toby, though they don’t name these exactly, talk about New Product Bias and Quality Bias as ways of explaining why CPI is not always reliable!
Thanks to Katie Cook and Kalina Staub from UNC for getting this clip on the website!
I just got an email from a student at 10:30pm on a Saturday because they were watching the West Wing and there was a scene where CJ and Toby were discussing CPI and inflation, and she knew what they were talking about. I will never receive a better email. My life is made.
— Kalina Staub (@TwterlessKalina) December 2, 2018