Truth in the media – who says so? Key and notes
Truth in the media – it depends who’s talking. Finding out the truth is complex.
In a report on the war in Iraq there was an announcement that violence had radically diminished in Iraq lately – explosions in Baghdad were down 90-something percent, and shootings were down 80-something percent. Meanwhile, peace, or something very like it, seemed to have broken out in certain key areas. However, when interviewed on TV a high-profile American network reporter said that violence in the most dangerous parts of Iraq was down "slightly."
Sometimes statistics tell us more about the people who use them than they do about the reality they claim to describe. It is so easy to misrepresent radical changes as merely slight. After all, it’s only statistics.
Notes
It depends who’s talking – notice that this phrase is incomplete, needing you to deduce the meaning implied which is ‘whether you believe it or not’ / ‘whether you agree or not’.
Spelling: radical, radically
Vocabulary: radically – very important in essential respects
break out – phrasal verb – start suddenly, usually of something dangerous or unpleasant eg an epidemic, fighting, war.
high-profile – adjective used before a noun – attracting a lot of attention and interest from the public and newspapers, television, etc
misrepresent – verb – describe falsely an idea, opinion, fact or situation, often in order to obtain an advantage
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