Jon Cohn does a good job debunking the common claim that they pay their workers $70 an hour. The $70 an hour came from dividing total compensation costs by the current workforce. But of course, lots of those compensation costs are attached -- or were attached, before last year's UAW concessions -- to retirees. The truth is that current workers make about $24 an hour, plus another $10 in compensation. That's about $60,000 a year, with good benefits. It's a solid, middle class life. A helluva lot less than Joe the Plumber pulled in. But the $70 number isn't tossed around because it's accurate. It's deployed because it's useful. It recasts the story of the American auto industry as a morality tale in which greedy unions sit as the villain. The truth is more complicated. You can argue that global competition makes it impossible to pay skilled blue collar workers $60,000 a year plus retirement benefits. You can argue that, but few people will like your argument. Indeed, it's the sort of thing that may push American workers to clamor for tariffs on cars and insulation from global competition. So people inch away from that argument. Rather, they try to paint the union members as uniquely overpaid, because that will arouse jealousy rather than sympathy, and anger at the union rather than respect for the struggle it represents. But they can only do that because the media credulously circulates the claim. As Dean Baker says, "Any reporter who repeats this number should get an immediate 10 percent pay cut. It is simply untrue." Accountability, kids. We needz it.