I recently watched a TV commercial that denounced Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Michaud for wanting to spend $1 million to aid “illegal immigrants.”
Oh, my God – 1 million dollars! Balderdash! This was the most egregious example of numerical manipulation that I have seen in many years.
Does anyone who watched this commercial know just how insignificant this amount of money is? The Maine state budget for 2013 was $7.998 billion (yes, billion). Of that, $1 million represents 0.000125 percent. That’s 1.25 ten-thousandths of 1 percent, or 1/8,000th of the state budget.
It is an abomination that political ad writers play on the mathematical illiteracy of too many people to produce such ads. If ever we needed “truth police” for political advertising, it is now. Let’s stop these ads that play to deceit by exaggeration and start telling the truth about numbers.
Larry Ryan
Kennebunkport
Copy the Story LinkSend questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.