September 21, 2004

The Rest of the Story

I hate it when the people in the news just leave out relevant information and I happened across an example today.

CNN:

In a closed meeting, the Senate Intelligence Committee of eight Democrats and nine Republicans voted 12 to 4 for the nomination, with one senator making no recommendation on the nomination.

Which senator? CNN doesn't say. I mean, it's not like I can't guess. One of the members of this committee is running for the office of Vice President. By why didn't CNN tell us?

I don't mind that he didn't vote. I mean, he's running for office. A vote now either way would be somewhat rude.

But it irritates me that CNN wouldn't just say it.

Posted by Flibbertigibbet at September 21, 2004 07:00 PM
Comments

It does seem to be the whole point of news to tell who it was, especially since it was John Edwards -- a name people might recognize. Not like CNN really is news...

Posted by: 2flower at September 24, 2004 11:17 AM

I hate it too. The one I see most often: giving absolute numbers of something rather than percentages, e.g. "There are XXX million children born into poverty every year". Is that a lot or a little?

The next most often: mixing absolute numbers with percentages, so you can't compare them, e.g. "There are XX million impoverished children in the US, but only X% of French children live in poverty".

Posted by: David Boxenhorn at September 27, 2004 10:38 AM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?