Fox News Deceitful Bush Tax Chart

Molehill looks like mountain? yeah, that's Fox. :)

Very effective!

So you are cool with misleading people with misinformation, eh? No surprise there.

Yes Rory,
I'm all for winning back the office of the President from the progressives. And if that means posting the truth...Then that's what needs to be done!

Lora, are you really saying that Republicans are smart enough to read the scale on the side of the chart and other viewers are not?

Apparently not, since you can't seem to fathom the point of this article which is much clearer.

Yeah, that was significant of you, Clark. Here is Lora's Point, in case her post was too long for you to read: the graphic implies VISUALLLY that ending the Bush tax cuts would increase tax rates by 1000 per cent. If the viewer actually were to look at the small print, he would comprehend that the tax rate change will be trivial. But Fox viewers probably won't do that. Got it now? :)

And where do you get the 1000% figure from Chris? Even though the size of the graph is exaggerated, no one could interpret it a 1000%

The graph is very clear, I just don't understand why you guys think that it is so hard to read.

Thanks for your concern though.

If I need help reading a graph, I will let you know, so you can point out the obvious.

The graph is very clear, I just don't understand why you guys think that it is so hard to read.

The graph is intentionally deceitful. It's a shame that the tea party encourages deceit, defends deceit, and practices deceit.

The tea party propensity toward dishonesty has become obvious.

And it is the tea party to whom the profoundly dishonest Fox graph is intended to incite.

Funny how it is all of us conservatives that are practicing disseat, and lying to ourselves as we do it, because we know that no real liberal would ever watch Fox… Again, thank you for your concern.

I was just reading “THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION —JULY 2012” from the bureau of labor statistics.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

Funny how the scale is from 7.0 to 11.0, and that must totally enrage you that the government is trying to deceive us with the current unemployment numbers.
It’s ok, I am mad too, lets be mad together.

Such an outrage..

The slimiest of propaganda straight out of the bowels of Fox News.

It is obvious that piles are disproportionate! The dumbs who produced it would only rely on other dumbs to believe it.

Does this means that Fox addicts are dumbs due to their lack of objectivity?
Or is it an insult to the Fox addicts?

Posted by the dumbest of the dumbs.

Baaa

I would not say "deceitful," but it is misleading. Still, if the reporter actually mentioned the two rates - 35% and 39.6%, viewers would have no excuse not to realize that the difference was 4.6%.

Bar graphs are often very incomplete and/or misleading. Stock brokerages often used them very skillfully to get people to buy mutual funds that were not real good investments. Have you ever seen those bar graphs that show the returns for some new mutual fund. They show that during the first year the investor got a return of 50% on his investment, during the second year the fund lost 50%, and during the third it rose 30%. Then you see the claim that the annual average return was 10%. Sounds good, right? Well, try figuring what has happened to you if you actually invested $10,000. By the end of the first year the value of your investment has shot up to $15,000, but by the end of the second it is down to $7,500. Then after the third it is at just under $10,000. You lost money even though your annual average return was supposed to be 10%.

I would not say "deceitful," but it is misleading.

Let's not split hairs...if you're deceiving people you're trying to mislead them in some way, otherwise, you would be honest.

Bar graphs are often very incomplete and/or misleading.

I would guess that's why government and media love to use them. I am still shocked by such betrayal even though I shouldn't be by now.

"Let's not split hairs ..."

What you write is generally true but if you are misleading someone, you are not necessarily trying to be deceitful. "Deceitful" is a much stronger word and if someone uses it, he/she is clearly saying that that person (group, company, ...) is intentionally dishonest. "Misleading," on the other hand, can be used in a way that indicates something far less than intentional dishonesty. Consider the following example:


"The way you described this guy, Jane, was very misleading. You left me with the impression that he was as good looking as Errol Flynn. However, I really didn't find him to be that handsome." (You can clearly see that the use of the word "deceitful" would drastically change this sentence.)

If you look at the picture again, you will also note that the two most important numbers - 35% and 39.6% - are clearly visible, though not highlighted. Also, you don't mention what the reporter said. If the reporter used words like "monstrous tax increase," you would be justified in saying the reporter and/or network was being "deceitful." Did you actually watch the report and listen to what the reporter said?

You may like high marginal tax rates for the rich, but I would like to ask you one important question: If the top income tax rate had been only 25% from the 60s till today, do you think we would have decided that we could afford the Vietnam War and all the other smaller wars that followed? Do you also think presidents would feel that we could afford to spend billions and billions of dollars on foreign aid every year? Think about that.


"I would guess that's why ... love to use them."

They probably love them because they are easy to see and are more sensationalist in nature. And simple visual imagery and sensationalism, they probably believe, lead to a larger viewership. All the networks use them and they use them for not just tax rates and other economic matters. The next report we hear about a spike in the murder rate or drug usage ... will probably be accompanied somewhere with some bar graph that makes people think the whole country is reverting back to the days of Al Capone.

Lora,
I will not be as articulate as Dave...I find it funny though that you chastise FOX news yet your source of News Info is all hard left..So it really all depends on your point of view...You are a progressive and all that entails ..good for you. But please it was a bar graph drawn to scale but as graphs go it is visually distracting because the Y axis makes 4% look huge.. is not deceiving.. no more than telling everyone his spend rate is less.. It doesn't mean he is spending less .. actually he has increased spending from 20% of GDP to 25% of GDP.. So this is really a bogus attack on FOX simply because you are a lefty progressive.

yet your source of News Info is all hard left.

The source of this information is indeed from a liberal source. You know why that is, no conservative source would be reporting on how misleading a graph on Fox was!

The graph is misleading. Even conservatives will admit that.