Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics......

[HokieHill]

I concluded a long time ago that the media today draws a conclusion, and then writes an article to support it, even if an analysis of the data doesn't come close to supporting it. It really is to the point that reporting, IMO, is completely worthless.

An artilce I read this morning had this headline:

Retailers' sales beat expectations

So if you read that headline, would you expect to find the following paragraph within the article:

According to Thomson Reuters' revenue-weighted same-store sales index, overall sales fell 1.8 percent, double the expected decline, due largely to Wal-Mart's results. Excluding Wal-Mart, sales fell 5 percent, slightly better than the 5.2 percent drop that analysts expected.

C'mon. Retailers didn't come close to beating expectations. Sure, a few individual retailers may have, but as a group, they missed it by a mile.

Good Grief.

If you would like to witness the complete train wreck, you can look here:

Retailers' sales beat expectations: Thomson Reuters Business News - MSN Money

[Frugality_of_Apathy]

Do not attribute to malice that which can be explained with incompetence.

While you can lie with statistics the data it's self doesn't lie and as a rule most reporters tell you how much a $6 sandwich cost unless someone told them "A $6 sandwich costs $6."

Companies are always going to present themselves in the best light possible and reporting has become so dismal that nowadays printing the press release handed to you verbatum after taking a guided tour is thought to be a in depth investigation.

[Dennis]

LOL.. Yes this is so true... I call it Spin Doctoring.. And it goes the Other way as well.. Such as Every 4th adn 1st Qtr, the Real Estate Loobbyist and Assoc., Home Builders and alike all start Crying the Blues on Gloam And Doom, to Try to Influence The Fed to Lower Rates for the Upcomming Spring and Summer Buying season..

and they get away with it most of the time.. I owned a Home and paid a 6-7% Mortgage for 15 yrs and we managed..and most others in our Generation did too..

And how about " The Market is Up 25%! Since The Bottom of 3/09/09! LOL
They of course fail to mention it's Still Down over -30-40% Yet !
Or how about GAS is Down 50% from a year Ago!

I called my Cable Company, just to bug them.. telling them I just can't keep justifying My Cable Bill..( I have a Packaged Deal of Cable,HSI and Phone) and that I would like to Eliminate about 50% of the Channels On my Cable, since I don't watch them and don't want to support them ( Like the Tattoo channel, Or Buying Channel or Food Channels or Kids Channels) and of course they said it's a packaged deal and can't be seperated.. So, I said Well my Bill is just too much and they said I was Getting the lowest Price available....and a real bargin.... Yeah , Right compared to what?

I did the same with my 2 Credit cards and they reduced my Rates by 1% ( from 7.5% down to 6.49 and 5.99% now )

It's all Spin Doctoring..Just to get you to Buy, Buy and Buy somemore..

Oh, don't forget to go spend $4 for the NY Times now and $2.25 for the Chicago Tribune to get 80% adds in them..