Mary Beth Sheridan may have been working on a tight deadline, but considering the issues at stake, her editors should have killed her story before allowing it to print misleading numbers on voter turnout in the Honduran elections for November 30th Washington Post. Sheridan reports:

The crisis began on June 28, when President Manuel Zelaya, who had embraced the leftist agenda of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, was arrested on charges related to his campaign to rewrite the constitution. Many Hondurans believed Zelaya was trying to extend his rule. Soldiers bundled him onto a plane for Costa Rica, the first time

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Covering President Barack Obama’s trip to China a Helene Cooper, Michael Wines, and David Sanger by-lined piece in the November 14th New York Times begins:

When President Obama visits China for the first time on Sunday, he will, in many ways, be assuming the role of profligate spender coming to pay his respects to his banker.

That stark fact — China is the largest foreign lender to the United States — has changed the core of the relationship between the United States and the only country with a reasonable chance of challenging its status as the world’s sole superpower.

China is our … Continue Reading

On November 17th, New York Times economic reporter David Leonhardt posted an item titled “A Stimulus That Could Save Money” and opened:

The one highly visible success of the stimulus program has been the cash-for-clunkers program. It induced a boom in vehicle sales this summer that clearly would not have happened otherwise.

Considering the rest of Leonhardt’s article is about the cost benefit analysis of a proposed federal stimulus program for weatherizing homes, you’d hop he would take a paragraph to defend his claim that the cash for clunkers program was a success.

Leonhardt is correct that the program did stimulate car … Continue Reading

Reporting on the October 2009 US trade deficit and the bilateral deficit with China, the Associated Press’ Martin Crutsinger and Christopher S. Rugaber conclude:

American manufacturers contend that China is manipulating the value of its currency, keeping it undervalued by as much as 40 percent in relation to the dollar. That gives Chinese manufacturers a competitive advantage and makes U.S. goods more expensive in China.

While Crutsinger and Rugaber are correct that American manufacturers still allege that China’s currency is undervalued by 40%, the journalists fail to mention that this statistic is from 2003, and that China’s currency – the … Continue Reading

The New York Times section “Economix” claims to explain “the science of everyday life.” But in his November 11th write up about the White House endorsement of mandatory paid sick leave, the reporter Steven Greenhouse doesn’t explain anything. Greenhouse opens:

The H1N1 pandemic is raising concerns about people reporting to work sick and spreading the disease. The pandemic has given momentum to Congressional efforts to enact legislation that would guarantee paid sick days to tens of millions of workers — although it is far from clear that such legislation will be enacted. Those legislative efforts received added momentum

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USA Today’s Mimi Hall published a Q&A: Abortion issue and health care bill on November 11th that does a very fair job of addressing the controversy. She could have done a little more though. The piece includes:

Q: What is the history behind the abortion-coverage ban?

A: In 1976, Congress passed a law banning the use of federal funds for abortions. The idea was that taxpayers who oppose abortion shouldn’t have to see their tax dollars used for the procedure. That ban only applies to funds distributed through the annual appropriations for the Health and Human Services Department. Money for new

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In the November 10 San Francisco Chronicle, Carolyn Lochhead reports on Rep. Bart Stupak’s (D-MI) amendment preventing taxpayer funding for abortions:

The amendment by Bart Stupak, D-Mich., passed 240 to 194, with backing from 64 Democrats, including Dennis Cardoza and Jim Costa from the Central Valley, and most Republicans. It expands an existing ban, known as the Hyde Amendment, on public funding for abortion.
…
Days of tense negotiations in Pelosi’s office over an alternative by Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, and Brad Ellsworth, D-Ind., that would have codified existing law broke down in bitterness and recriminations.

Nowhere does Lochhead justify the claim that … Continue Reading

The November 6th USA Today has an article by Dan Vergano titled, Gore’s book a toolbox for fixing climate crises, on former Vice President Al Gore’s new book, Our Choice, A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis. Included in the article is the following paragraph:

The book resulted from two years of ‘Solutions Summits’ with scientists, economists and engineers, and lists four pages worth of contributors as well as 25 independent reviewers. The fact checking follows jibes over small errors in An Inconvenient Truth, the documentary that turned Gore into an icon of climate change.

In fact, that film’s errors were … Continue Reading

Erica Werner and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar wrote a November 5th article for the Associated Press on the AARP’s endorsement of the latest version of the House health bill.

Many retirees are concerned about cuts in Medicare payments to medical providers, which will be used to finance an expansion of health insurance coverage to millions of working families who now lack it. Also, AARP says its membership is about evenly divided among Democrats, Republicans and independents, meaning its endorsement in today’s highly politicized atmosphere could anger many members.

This is a good start, but a better report would have noted AARP’s conflict of … Continue Reading

Perry Bacon Jr. reports in the November 3rd Washington Post:

The abortion dispute centers both on federal subsidies that would be provided for people who cannot afford health-care coverage themselves and the much-debated government insurance alternative, which is included in the House version of the bill but is still being debated in the Senate. Under a 1976 law, federal funds are generally barred from being used for abortions, except in cases of rape or incest or to ensure the life of the mother.

This is just plain false. Bacon is in no dount referring to the Hyde Amendment when he mentions the … Continue Reading

The November 2nd Associated Press article by David Espo, AP sources: House health bill totals $1.2 trillion, is a great start at honest reporting on the true costs of the House health care bill. Espo reports:

The health care bill headed for a vote in the House this week costs $1.2 trillion or more over a decade, according to numerous Democratic officials and figures contained in an analysis by congressional budget experts, far higher than the $900 billion cited by President Barack Obama as a price tag for his reform plan.

While the Congressional Budget Office has put the cost of

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The White House and much of the mainstream media argue that Fox News just parrots conservative talking point. Yet in this October 30th story about the cash for clunkers program, it’s the White House talking points that are echoed without placing those points in context or offering much needed analysis.

Reporter John Voelcker writes:

The program took nearly three quarters of a million heavily-polluting cars and trucks off the roads, and put that many new, much cleaner vehicles in their place. And it boosted the ailing car industry, including suppliers and dealers that employ hundreds of thousands of workers.

Voelcker looks … Continue Reading