Quick! Take a look at this Fox News graph of unemployment numbers under President Obama that Media Matters posted yesterday, and tell me what’s wrong with it:
- Click to enlarge.
Give up? Got no time for bullshit quizzes? Answer’s after the jump.
(Via Daring Fireball.)
The most recent unemployment figures, 8.6%, are depicted on the graph as being the same height as last month’s 9% figures and higher than last March’s 8.8% figures. On a graph of this size, it’s a pretty enormous fuckup, and the chances of that being a mistake are about the same as the chances that I’ll suddenly start watching Fox News on a regular basis.
Remember 2 years ago when SLOG was telling everyone to buy condos?
It’s the Karl Rove math.
It’s like a graph sketched out on a napkin …
In other news, Democrats folded yet again on taxes, and Obama’s going to sign a draconian defense bill giving him even greater national security powers.
All math is equal, but some math is more equal than others.
@3: It’s like a graph sketched out on a paper towel. A napkin is not a paper towel.
Actually that is not what is wrong with the graph.
The numbers do not reflect unemployment because they do not count people who have quit looking.
If the number of people out of work is related to the number of people in the workforce when Obama took office the true figure is over 11%.
The x-axis?
Maths is hard.
Wow — I gasped when I saw it. How shamelessly deceitful can you get?
It’s not a graph, it’s an interpretative number accompaniment (for entertainment purposes only).
You mean fox news published a lie in an attempt to make the democrats look bad? No way!
@11 Exactly. You’d fail a math assignment if you handed that in as being an accurate representation of data.
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I’m constantly amused by the wide eyed criticism of Fox News. Seriously, you’re not convincing those who watch it, nor alerting those who don’t to what they’re (not) missing.
MSNBC and NPR (unfortunately in the case of NPR, since they did serious reporting even if with a strong liberal bias at one time prior to the GWB presidency) are the propaganda mouthpieces for the DNC, and Fox for the RNC. The only difference is that Fox and NPR make half hearted attempts to balance their editorials with differing points of view, while MSNBC is blatantly partisan with no token effort to appear anything like serious journalists.
Everyone already knows these folks, like The Stranger in fact, aren’t serious about journalism or indeed factual reporting.
#15 – Fuck off, Cyclops. Back in your hole.
@15: Fox and NPR are 2 sides of the same coin? That must be why I call it “Now Promoting Republicans”.
I am still trying to figure out if you actually believe the shit you post.
Of course it was a deliberate misrepresentation. The graph wasn’t drawn up on a napkin it was drawn up on a computer. The computer program would have automatically placed 8.6% lower then 8.8% a massive visual drop given the scope of the graph. To get 8.6% to appear at exact same level as 9% the graph you would have to manually override the computer program.
Oh. Hey. Look, everybody. It’s the ol’ “Libruhls do it too” defense! Iron tight argumentation, there Blues.
If only the false comparison wasn’t laughably and provably false.
But I suppose it’s as Colbert said:
“Facts have a notorious liberal bias.”
Here’s another great Fox ‘Dis-info’ graphic from a couple days ago.
http://chzdailywhat.files.wordpress.com/…
It’s a Where’s Waldo of idiotic mistakes and distortions right there. This is called “malcompetence.”
@16
And you have yourself a merry little Christmas as well. Hope the chestnuts are nicely roasted over that open fire, and lots of friends and family are around to celebrate the birth of Christ. I mean, it is the single most important historicaly event ever to happen, whatever lies you make up about Christianity.
Just out of curiousity, is this an example of the famed (and of course clearly mythical) tolerance for the views of others? Provided those others agree with every thing you believe, however erroneously. And provided they buy made up bogey men like GLOBAL WARMING IN WHICH WE’LL ALL BE UNDERWATER BY NEW YEARS DAY!!!!!!!! and the ‘right’ to health care and the way in which your mistakes are the fault of the rich and all the other laughable stuff liberals do believe anyway.
@19 and 17
Wait- You think NPR is conservative? And MSNBC is in any way presenting some vague representation of reality?
Speaking of wondering if someone believes what they write! Your cognitive dissonance is making my ears ring.
@21
Tolerance is not the same as politeness. I don’t think it should be illegal for you to say the things you say. Nor do I think that you should hide your beliefs for the sake of social decorum. I am happy, however, to call you an idiot. That is one of the consequences of your freedom to say dumb things.
Calling the birth of Christ “the single most important historicaly event ever to happen”, for example, is dumb, and not just for spelling and grammar reasons. This is one of those issues where the answer depends on who you ask. A Chinese person is not likely to see things your way, for example. A Patuxet, were you able to find one, might make the connection between the self-imposed exile of the pilgrims and the massacres and plagues that killed off his people, though, so you might have an ally there. Genocide is pretty much the most significant thing that can happen to any people. I think it would probably still have happened without Christ, though, as would most of world history. Had the baby Jesus been crushed by an errant ox hoof, we would have muddled our way through to another messiah eventually. The time was right for it.
The extent to which the principles of said messiah might have differed from Christ’s would not, in the fullness of time, have mattered very much, as the behavior of Christ’s believers has not historically had much to do with his doctrines. You, for example, don’t appear to have payed much attention to his dicta about caring for the poor and healing the sick, or else do not understand that asserting that health care is not a right necessarily implies that some people should not have access to health care.
Back to tolerance, for a second. I celebrate you, SB – I celebrate the tiny world in which you live, where everything is rational and beautiful, god above man above woman above slave above nature. It’s a compelling way to look at the world! It soars like a cathedral. It has nothing to do with reality, but we all fool ourselves, to a greater or lesser extent. Wishing enlightenment on you would be wishing you harm, and it would make my own life less entertaining, so I won’t. Shine on, you crazy diamond, and when you go out bang like a candle at the end of your comfortable life, I hope that you are not aware enough at the end to see that you were wrong.