May 08
the boston globe… maybe not so good with the math
I read a story linked from the drudgereport on the Boston Globes website. I submitted my rebuttal to newsbusters.org as follows:
The Boston Globe has a ‘waaaaaaa’ story that highlights the plight of gas guzzlers and the cost of fuel. The story by Jenn Abelson of the Globe starts off by telling the story of poor Douglas Chrystall and his Dodge Ram. Reportedly, Douglas pays $75, three times a week to “fill his black Dodge Ram pickup truck.”
This really seemed odd. $225 a week in gasoline? Only $75 to fill the tank of a Dodge?
Without knowing the age of his truck, let’s look at the photo on the website… looks like a newer Ram - he’s got some nice rims and tires too - so we’ll say a 2006 Dodge Ram 1500. Now this truck has a 26 gallon fuel tank. The average price of gasoline in Massachusetts is $3.63. To fill up his tank should cost him almost $95. Hmmmm, maybe he’s got a good coupon book.
Okay, let’s say he does pay $75 (three times a week) and his truck averages around 15.5 MPG. He must be driving around 961 miles a week; that’s almost 50,000 miles a year. Wow. And it’s costing him around $11,000 to do that much driving.
So basically the story from the Boston Globe is that consumers that drive over three times the yearly national average are facing a financial burden. Yep, sounds like NEWS to me.
sources: www.edmunds.com
www.boston.com
www.bostongasprices.com
edit:
Ken Shepherd at newsbusters.org points out that it is possible that our ‘victim’ of the vicious oil companies may have been using high-octane, but like he said it still doesn’t account for the total miles driven in as a consumer that is supposed to represent the average American.
Also, this makes for my third wide-spread blog (Horray for little old me). My first entry into the blogosphere (versus just my ramblings to friends and family) was my analysis of the 2004 Election when compared with the U.S. Generosity Index (my work was highjacked and hot linked by Huffington posters) and my work on identifying Wikipedia edits featured on Michelle Malkin’s website.
May 8th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Where does he work?
I used to rack up about 10k miles/year. But, I have a neice who commutes over eighty miles per day (round trip), which adds up quickly. I think she’s nuts, but then I used to work who commuted almost twice that (Newport RI to Quincy Mass).
May 8th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Nice post, Bill. The level of journalism is even worse than that, though. The Globe actually solicited SUV-owning “victims” for this sob story on their website.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:13 am
When I first entered the work force in 1972 and drove a motorcycle, I found an apartment 3 miles from work. Through the early years of my working experience I continued this habit while working in Hawaii, South Carolina or North Carolina. The past 30 years I’ve owned my own business and commute 8.8 miles round trip daily, 6 days a week. I drive a 2002 Grand Cherokee v-8 that I fill up once every three weeks.
The moral here is it’s up to each individual as to how much they wish to spend on gas. Those who commute more than 20 miles round trip daily do so at their own peril. The answer is either move closer to your job or vice-versa.
May 9th, 2008 at 7:06 am
Uh…The Globe didn’t say the guy fills up three times EVERY week.
He was complaining about filling three times in one particular week.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Todd: Valid point. However as the article is attempting to portray Mr. Chrystall as an example of consumers feeling the gasoline pitch they should have made the wording more clear - if that was the truth. However the innuendo was that this was common, thus his desire to sell his truck. If it was a one time event (filling up three times in one week), I doubt the motivation to sell his truck would have been strong enough.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
“So basically the story from the Boston Globe is that consumers that drive over three times the yearly national average are facing a financial burden.”
Ummm. No. That’s not even close to what the story is about. But why let facts spoil a good tirade and all that self-congratulatory back-patting.
The story was about the fact that the market for SUVs, especially the trade-in market, has basically collapsed. How much the guy drives, or how much he pays a week for gas, or whether or not he’s a typical driver is irrelevant. What’s relevant is that he’s an SUV owner. That’s why he’s quoted in the story. The story has numerous sources for its assertions, ranging from several SUV owners to Boston’s biggest auto dealer, from the chief economist for the auto dealers trade association to an academic who follows the industry.
So basically what we have here is a blogger who takes a couple of details in a story out of context and twists them in an intellectually dishonest way. Yep, that’s NEWS.
May 11th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Sorry Ted, but I would disagree. While the story is “about the fact that the market for SUV’s… has basically collapsed” the question is “why”? Why did the market collapse? The Globe, by using Mr. Chrystall as the introduction into the story, attempts to establish that the rising cost of fuel charges is driving the market change. The Globe, unable to find anyone that is suffering due to the market changes actually had to post an ad on their website soliciting people! When they finally found someone they used him as an example of what the common SUV owner is facing in order to justify their story. I simple assert that their example is more of an oddity. He drives more than than the average American. The math doesn’t ad up and I think the story was sloppy journalism spurred by a need to further the belief that the economy is in the tanks and Big Oil should share the blame.
That was my point.
May 12th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Well again, Bill, your criticism just doesn’t stand up. You’re taking facts out of context, and simply ignoring all the evidence in the story that doesn’t fit your thesis. That’s the oldest debating trick in the book. Yes, the Globe makes the case that the high cost of fuel is behind the SUV market collapse. That’s hardly a shocker, BTW. Every SUV driver I know moans about the cost of fill-ups. But your post implies their only backup is one aberrant driver. In fact, the story cites the following sources:
– Three SUV drivers
– The biggest car dealer in Boston
– A professor at Virginia Tech who follows the industry
– The chief economist from the National Automotive Dealers Association
– An automotive market research organization
– Automotive sales figures
Now, let’s examine the base premise of your post. Here’s what the story actually says about the SUV owner’s gas-buying: “After paying $75 to fill his black Dodge Ram pickup truck for the third time in a week, Douglas Chrystall couldn’t take it anymore.” That’s it. That’s all it says. Your entire post is based on the nonsensical leap that because he filled his tank three times in one week he must fill his tank three times every week. When Todd pointed out this quite fatal flaw in your logic your response was really, really weak. It’s almost as if you misread the story, wrote the post, and now can’t bring yourself to admit you were wrong.
Furthermore, I don’t understand your innuendo-laden implication that somehow using a web site to find sources is bad journalism. Why? Seems like an efficient way to contact a lot of people and a reasonable use of their web site to me. How ironic that a blogger — someone who mostly relies on the Internet for sources — would complain about a print reporter doing the same thing. How many bloggers have written the line “E-mail me if you’ve …”? Too many to count.
Finally, you say the Globe was “unable to find anyone that is suffering from the market changes.” Really? It’s pretty clear you didn’t contact the reporter, so how do you know she found her sources.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Okay.
November 5th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
I know Mr Chrystall personally - and he is a multi-millionare who should stop crying over a few bucks filling up his huge truck - he can amply afford it.