Great Moments in Jou…

Great Moments in Journalism (hat tip Best of the Web Today):

Item 1: The NY Times offers a correction.

An article on Tuesday about President Bush’s defense of American policy in the fighting between Israel and Lebanon incorrectly described the planning that led to Mr. Bush’s meetings on Monday at the Pentagon and the State Department. Mr. Bush’s schedule for the day was prepared weeks ahead as part of the annual presidential review meetings; it was not devised last week as part of a White House effort to seek political advantage on national security after Senator Joseph I. Lieberman’s loss in Connecticut’s Democratic primary and news of a disrupted terrorist plot in Britain. (Go to Article)

An honest mistake, I’m sure. Anybody would have assumed nefarious schemes, right?

Item 2: The Associated Press reports on the economy. Headline:

Consumer prices up, factory output slows

Slows? By how much? Paragraph 1 explains.

WASHINGTON – Consumer inflation accelerated in July, reflecting a big jump in gasoline and other energy prices. In evidence that the economy is slowing, industrial output in July slipped to just half the June pace.

Output in July was cut in half from that of June? That’s pretty drastic!

The truth finally comes out in paragraph 3.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve reported that output at the nation’s factories, mines and utilities increased by 0.4 percent last month, just half of the 0.8 percent gain in June.

So the output has increased in July, the output was not cut in half. What was cut in half was its rate of growth.

Interestingly enough, this is exactly how Democrats frame cuts in the growth rate of budgetary spending as well. If they want to increase a line item by $2 million, and the Republicans only want to raise it by $1 million, Dems wind up on the talk shows talking about a $1 million “cut” the evil Republicans want to impose. There is hardly ever honest discussion about how the budget still is increasing.

Odd that the Democrats and the media use the same terminology, eh?

(Cross-posted at Blogger News Network. Comments welcome.)

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