frankenlies.com
#12: Franken Don’t Know Poverty
In his chapter "Fun with Racism," Franken writes,
"[Y]outh poverty among blacks is now at its highest level in the twenty-three years they’ve been keeping the statistic." (Lies, page 259 (paperback, p. 268))
Wrong! Franken cites a Los Angeles Times article about a study by the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF). If Franken or any of his Harvard researchers had actually taken a moment to read the CDF release, they would have read "that annual Black child poverty figures reached their lowest point on record in 2001."
1 (italics and bold added.) This is the complete opposite of Franken's claim! Doh!What the study actually showed was an increase in the number of black youths living within a much smaller sub-category called "extreme poverty."
2 ("Extreme poverty" is the level below half the amount used to define regular-ol’ "poverty.")Because it is smaller in number, the category of extreme poverty displays more fluctuation. In fact, there was another increase in the extreme poverty category between 1996 and 1997 when (gasp!) Bill Clinton was president. That’s right:
""Extreme poverty among black youth increased in the middle of the Clinton administration!
Gee, that doesn’t sound very good, does it? See what an author can do?
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Notes:
1
“Analysis: Number of Black Children in Extreme Poverty Hits Record High,” Children’s Defense Fund, May 28, 2003. [It is online here. Its very first line is notable, as are the graphs on page 3.]2
Ibid.