Posted by
Andrews on Friday, April 24, 2009 2:42:20 PM
I was going to write an article on how the press can tie anything into their favored topics. As they seem to never tire of the "Bush recession", when I saw the headlines "
Recession linked to more abortions, vasectomies" and "
Pools become nasty mosquito havens in foreclosure", I was ready to have a laugh at how any statistical blip could become a horror story tied to "Bush's recession" (though
how they blame Bush still escapes me).
But it turns out this is even more amusing.
Does anyone recall the tales in the last days of the Bush administration about how the "recession" was causing tent cities to spring up? And the evidence offered was an increase in requests for tents from some aid groups? Not that anyone actually saw these tent cities, or found anyone who lived in one, but that some groups were asking for tents, as they expected such tent cities to spring up. (And I note that I still have yet to see one, despite many subsequent months of actual recession, though the
Democrats now tell us that numbers actually meeting the definition of recession are really "recovery", just like Bush's numbers, though not meeting the definition of recession, were still a "recession".)*
Well, those tent city tales were sound reporting compared to this one.
You see, the story on abortions and vasectomies starts as expected, with the tale of a single mother whose economic situation is blamed on causing her to consider abortion. Of course, even as tales of woe go, it is pretty weak. She isn't unemployed, she is a nurse, but she worries she might not have a job. In other words, she isn't actually facing hard times, but is facing worries that she may eventually face hard times.
But that is not the best part. Where a normal report would shift from the tale of woe part into the statistics-and-experts bit, this tale adds a brilliant transition:
The recession may be a factor influencing more Americans to opt out of
parenthood with abortions and vasectomies, although there is no data
available yet to suggest a trend.
Even so, there is some anecdotal evidence that would-be parents are
factoring the rough economic times into the most personal of
reproductive choices, some experts said.
In other words, "We think there is a link, and some of our friends, and cherry picked experts, agree."
So, to summarize, this is what passes for reporting at Reuters: A woman is worried that she might have financial troubles int he future, so she has an abortion. And, we think there may be many more who are considering abortions and vasectomies due to the recession. We can't prove it, we have no evidence, and this woman without any real financial troubles is the best example we can find, but just go along with us, ok?
And they wonder why the
newspapers are dying? Maybe if they had stuck
to reporting news, rather
than making it they wouldn't have to ask.
POSTSCRIPT
To return to the "tent cities", it is interesting that the same reporters who thought Bush was
creating modern Hoovervilles completely ignored the
very real tent cities (or at least swarms of squatters) created in cities with smart growth and rent control. It seems when the policy creating poverty and homelessness is well intentioned it merits no criticism.