Dear Editor of the Ann Arbor Business Review,

In the Jan 4 edition, in the ‘In Our Opinion’ column on President Ford’s leadership, you say that an ‘overwhelming majority’ of Americans believe Ford’s decision to pardon Nixon was the correct one. You then back that up with an ABC poll stating that ‘one in six Americans think it was the right thing to do.’ One in six hardly seems to be a majority, at least in the mathematics I was taught.

At first I thought it might have been a typo (perhaps only one in six thought it was wrong), but I decided to look up the poll to check it for myself. The widely-cited 2002 ABC News poll on the subject indicated that 59% of Americans believe that Ford did the right thing. I would not call that an ‘overwhelming majority’ by any stretch. And any reference to ‘one in six’ – either for or against – is completely erroneous. Six in ten, or even three in five, but not one in six.

When you make such ghastly mistakes on numbers on the opinion page, it does make me wonder how well you’re checking the rest of the numbers you report. It doesn’t inspire any trust in your editing skills and makes me call into question how often you allow your reporters to write something that sounds good instead of actually getting it right.

Regards,

Laura Fisher

UPDATE:

You’re right Laura…We noticed the blooper last week, too late to make a fix. It was an embarrassing goof and we plan to run a correction this week.

For your edification, our policy is not to “write something that sounds good instead of actually getting it right.” Our policy is to get it right. Period.

Thanks much for your note.

Andrew J. Chapelle
Editor, The Ann Arbor Business Review

(He wins big points for using one of my very most favoritest phrases: You’re right, Laura.)