Interesting People mailing list archives
more on AP Poll: only 1/3rd of Americans care about deficit
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 06:23:09 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Laurent GUERBY <laurent () guerby net> Date: August 28, 2005 5:22:35 AM EDT To: dave () farber net Cc: Ip Ip <ip () v2 listbox com> Subject: Re: [IP] AP Poll: only 1/3rd of Americans care about deficit
Begin forwarded message: From: Paul Saffo <psaffo () iftf org> Date: August 27, 2005 9:15:08 PM EDT To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net> Subject: AP Poll: only 1/3rd of Americans care about deficit The top line is scary enough, but the full article will scare the wits out of one... -p http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats- ap_top14aug27,0,5953759.story Experts Warn Debt May Threaten Economy By ROBERT TANNER AP National Writer [...]
The correct URL (found via google news) is:http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp? category=1110&slug=Drowning%20in%20Debt
The original URL (currently?) points to an article about Cindy Sheehan. BTW, I find the article a striking example about journalism deceptive display of numbers (propaganda if you wish), the cited statistics are not linked to each other, breakdown of flashy numbers is not given, etc... In more details: "You owe $145,000. And the bill is rising every day. That's how much it would cost every American man, woman and child to pay the tab for the long-term promises the U.S. government has made to creditors, retirees, veterans and the poor." What is the breakdown please? "$1 of every $100 earned." How do I scale that to compare to the previous number? What about including SS tax if you talked about retirees? How much is earned each year? How about scaling on a complete working life? "meaning debt eats almost $1 in every $5 American families have to spend after they get past the bills that keep them fed and housed. (That figure hasn't dropped. Credit card debt alone averages $7,200 per household.)" Am I supposed to get idea of the situation from these disparate numbers? All of these numbers are part of the same picture yet the "journalist" gives us no information whatsoever to scale them, this is *scary* disinformation work. Sincerely, Laurent PS: Press Corp. isn't better in my home country anyway... Hopefully we have many blogs and wikipedia. ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
Current thread:
- more on AP Poll: only 1/3rd of Americans care about deficit David Farber (Aug 28)