Friday, January 07, 2005
Letter to Times' "Public Editor" re: Jobs Number headline.
Today we sent this email to the very fine gentlemen Daniel Okrent and Arthur Bovino at the NY Time's "Public Editor" desk:
Gentlemen,
This morning the headline for Mr. Andrew's job-numbers story (http://nytimes.com/2005/01/07/business/07cnd-econ.html) was something like, "Job numbers worse than Wall Street Prediction" (paraphrased from memory). Sometime later in the day it was changed to the far rosier: "Economy Adds 157,000 Jobs, Ending Best Year Since 1999"
Some questions:
1. What prompted the headline change and why?
2. What method of calculating the hiring figures was used? You may be aware this is a matter of significant controversy. Shouldn't the method--as well as the controversy--be reported?
3. The current administration has a record of revising downward "positive" job numbers months after their release. In your opinion should that be something reporters should make note of when covering the initial reports?
4. In your reading of today's article--the specifics of the numbers--do you feel that the rosier headline is remotely appropriate? It seems that the most one could charitably say about it is that it is, in some narrow sense, technically true. But it's surely no more true than the original headline, which, frankly, is more in keeping with the rather dismal picture the numbers paint.
Regards, as always,
201k
