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Almost True: How 700 news broadcasts got an American Farm Bureau report totally wrong
Link to tweet
Tweet text:
Timothy Burke
@bubbaprog
This week the Farm Bureau released its annual July 4th report, finding the cost of a cookout is down 16 cents from last year. 862 local newscasts covered the report over a 72-hour period; 700 of those managed to get the story completely backward: https://patreon.com/posts/53264228
12:55 PM · Jul 3, 2021
Timothy Burke
@bubbaprog
This week the Farm Bureau released its annual July 4th report, finding the cost of a cookout is down 16 cents from last year. 862 local newscasts covered the report over a 72-hour period; 700 of those managed to get the story completely backward: https://patreon.com/posts/53264228
12:55 PM · Jul 3, 2021
https://www.patreon.com/posts/53264228
Every year the American Farm Bureau releases its report on the average cost of a July 4th backyard cookout. This year's report, later promoted clumsily by the White House, stated the cost was actually down slightly from last year — by 16 cents.
The report was covered on 862 local news broadcasts over a 72-hour period. 112 of those broadcasts accurately reported the findings; another 50 of them provided fewer details but concluded accurately that "the cost is about the same." (It's a 0.3% change over last year.)
And 700 managed to report that the cost was up.
I wouldn't believe that number if I hadn't tallied it by hand:
Here's how I think this happened, based on what I have access to.
*snip*