[IP] more on AP Poll: only 1/3rd of Americans care about deficit

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

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.




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