Errors and Omissions

A powerful illustration of bias through selectivity

I read this post, from the Logical Meme blog, on a Times article about the debate on the emergency spending bill. The blogger decomposes a brief sentence in the article.

The Senate approved a $109 billion measure on Thursday to pay for the war in Iraq and Gulf Coast hurricane recovery, ignoring a veto threat by President Bush and an increasingly hard line against spending by House Republicans.

In his analysis, he shows how the simple phrase "to pay for the war in Iraq and Gulf Coast hurricane recovery" omitted some Congressional earmarks which were the focus of the "hard-line-against-spending" Republicans' opposition. These earmarks in some cases have nothing at all to do with Iraq or Katrina, and in another cases are connected in some way but debatable as to their value.

In order to get a fuller picture of the spending bill, Logical Meme has to consult three other sources, the Washington Post, the AP via Forbes and the Marketwatch web site.

A journalist has to make decisions every day about what to include and what not to include. Under deadline pressure, these decisions are made quickly. The urge to reduce and summarize must be immense. In this case, the Times reporter and his editor didn't do their readership any favors by omitting important context.

Good work, Logical Meme.

New York Times, bias

posted by Unknown @ 5/06/2006 07:54:00 AM