For Good News, Please Turn To Page F-56
Here’s a question that could appear on California’s high school exit exam — you know, the one that requires only a 55 on a test of sixth to eighth grade math:
Q: If the thing being measured on the graph is bad for you, and the top of the graph is most bad and the bottom is least bad, are you better off now than you were two years ago?
A: Not if you’re writing headlines!
What’s being measured is the number of days the LA area exceeded the EPA’s smog standard. You’d think the continued improvement would be good news … but you’d be wrong:
LA Times: LA’s the Capital of Dirty Air Again
San Jose Mercury News: LA is once again the nation’s smog capital
Daily Breeze: Once again, Los Angeles is the nation’s smog capital
NBC4: LA Reclaims Title Of America’s Smog Capital
May we suggest copies of Gregg Easterbrook’s ““The Progress Paradox : How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse”” for all? The media are one culprit he fingers for influencing people to believe things are worse than the “good old days,” when in fact they are better. You just wouldn’t know it from reading the paper.
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H/t: Daily Pundit
Technorati Tags: LA Times, LAT, Los Angeles Times, media
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November 14th, 2005 at 5:29 pm
[…] … funny how that’s never the headline. Take a look at the simple graph we made here to see the GOOD news […]