It's a pity that Dean Baker doesn't have some sort of coercive regulatory authority over the nation's papers, as a bit of his perspective would really make for more sensible reporting. Today, for instance, he blasts The New York Times for reporting that a House bill eliminates $17 billion in tax breaks without noting that that's over a 10-year period, and without contextualizing the annual $1.7 billion change in spending in terms of what the number means to actual people: $5.70 per person, per year. So in a couple short sentences, we've moved from a huge number -- $17 billion, or "LOTS OF MONEY!" -- to the actual way we'll experience it -- yearly increments of $5.70, or a cheap sandwich. That's a pretty different understanding of the sum. Indeed, to help dramatize the way the impression of the story changes depending on which number is reported, I made a helpful graph:
Why isn't it official New York Times style to, as a matter of course, translate the numbers into all of these increments so readers could better understand them? It would barely take a moment, and would only require an additional sentence. And it would translate incomprehensibly huge totals into manageable sums, allowing readers to make the relevant calculation: Not whether they believe X priority with $17 billion, but whether they believe it worth, on average, $5.70 a year. That, at the end of the day, is what they'll actually be paying. $17 billion is a sum that has nothing to do with them.
Why isn't it official New York Times style to, as a matter of course, translate the numbers into all of these increments so readers could better understand them? It would barely take a moment, and would only require an additional sentence. And it would translate incomprehensibly huge totals into manageable sums, allowing readers to make the relevant calculation: Not whether they believe X priority with $17 billion, but whether they believe it worth, on average, $5.70 a year. That, at the end of the day, is what they'll actually be paying. $17 billion is a sum that has nothing to do with them. 
