To be fair, it's not as though the government treats the wealth of data as equally important and the media just fixates on one measure. The government wants to tout that low unemployment rate as well, and they make sure to do so whenever it fits their purposes.
Still a far cry from saying they're lying to us, but they're not exactly innocent victims either.
In the former USSR and other totalitarian states, the government put out a false, rosy picture of the economy which was generally held in contempt.
In the US, the government puts out a "true after these many caveats" picture that most people are fairly doubtful of.
It seems like the present order is simply developing more defensible propaganda.