Robert Waldmann
is still trying to learn journalistic arithmetic.
Recently I learned that 500,000 = 0 Now I learn from CNN that I got to restudy fractions or division or something as it seems that "two thirds" is equal to 92%
A new national poll indicates that two-thirds of those who watched President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress reacted favorably to his speech.
Sixty-eight percent of speech-watchers questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey Tuesday night had a very positive reaction to the president's address, with 24 percent suggesting they had a somewhat positive response and 8 percent indicating they had a negative reaction.
Now when I was learned percent and fractions 68% + 24% = 92% > 2/3.
I know that it is not ballanced to report the simple fact that 92% of people in the poll had a positive reaction, but better an unballanced fact than a ballanced falsehood.
CNN would have been approximately correct if they were to have written "A new national poll indicates that two-thirds of those who watched President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress reacted [very] favorably to his speech," although it would still be unclear to me why the phrase in the question "very positive reaction" should be replaced by something else "reacted very favorably." I know there is a rule of style that words are not to be repeated, but given the importance of exact wording in polls I think that rule of style demands inaccuracy.
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