Living on $7 a day, redux

Following Annie Jacobsen's post on Pajamasmedia concerning the LAT's claim that 60 million Americans live on $7 a day, the source of that claim, David Cay Johnston, frantically sought to defend his claim by posting several comments to Jacobsen's post on Pajamasmedia and one to a post here on Doddering Old Fool.

In defending his claim, Johnston first said that he had provided specific guidance on how he arrived at his assertion. He said he calculated the figures from IRS tables and Tax Foundation tables. He neither identified which tables he used (both IRS and Tax Foundation have published many tables) nor which specific figures he pulled from those tables. He says he used a formula and further says he provided the formula to readers of his comments. But nothing in his comments could properly be called a formula, presuming that to mean something like an equation.

Next, Johnston said that reporters (like himself, presumably) take great care with facts, although they are not perfect (and presumably sometimes make mistakes.) This seems a recognition that Johnston was mistaken in claiming 60 million Americans live on $7 a day.

Then he suggested that his claim is unimportant because it appeared in the 15th paragraph of his November 28, 2006 piece, published by the NYT. But others have relied on his claim and published it as fact. The LAT stated it as fact in a December editorial. When two of America's supposedly leading newspapers publish bogus "facts" it's important.

So far, apparently no one has been able to replicate Johnston's calculations despite his "guidance." If they can't be replicated then they deserve no credence.