$('<span>').text('new text') not working in IE

$('<span>').text('new text') not working in IE

Has anyone seen this before..

var myText = 'blah';
$('<span>').text(myText);

The above correctly sets the text of the span to blah in all browsers except IE. The only way I've gotten it to work in IE is...

$('<span>' + myText + '</span>')

Not the worst hack, but all the extra typing is adding up.

Any ideas? TIA