"bombings killed at least 73 people " but Headline is: Bomber Kills at Least 23 in Iraq

[rodeodance]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iraq.html?pagewanted=print

July 7, 2007

Bomber Kills at Least 23 in Iraq

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 6:45 a.m. ET

TUZ KHORMATO, Iraq (AP) -- A string of suicide bombings killed at least 73 people and wounded dozens in Shiite villages north of Baghdad, including a large truck bombing Saturday that ripped through an outdoor market and buried victims in rubble, officials said.

The quick succession of blasts within hours of each other suggested that Sunni militants are regrouping to launch their deadliest form of attack -- suicide explosions, often against Shiites -- in regions further away from Baghdad, beyond the edges of a three-week old U.S. offensive on the capital's northern flank.

The U.S. military on Saturday also reported that six American service members were killed in fighting in Baghdad and western Anbar province over two days, reflecting the increased U.S. death toll that has come with the new offensives.

......
The U.S. military on Saturday announced the deaths of six U.S. service members in combat, most in the Baghdad area.

[rzemanfl]

1. For months now a person has needed a pocket calculator to

read the news out of Iraq.

[rodeodance]

2. and read deep into the story--

[frogcycle]

3. those announcements of US troops killed

are almost always out of context. It's been ~3.5/day for four months. It is 96/month for the past ten months

it's been 3.44/day so far for July. May spiked up to 4.3

The "six over two days" is misleading on two counts. First, there were six killed in one day, five the next, and one the next. They reported the last two of the three. So they had it skewed to the low side (3/day) for those two days. But the twelve in three days (4/day) is high, because the day PRIOR to the six was three, and the day before that zero. Reporting these "sound bites" tells us nothing of the trends. Reporting the killings is essential, but if they are going to try to put the numbers into perspective, then they should take the time to do it.

Shoot, depending on the reporter's point of view, we could hear about twenty-minute periods in which 4-5 are killed, or periods in which none are killed! What would that tell us? I wish we had actual news professionals who sought to inform rather than to further agendas. In some cases the agenda is to pitch a point of view; in most it is just to get something printed, without paying attention to whether it actually means anything.