Sunday, May 30, 2010

The story is in the details

As we were driving down to Nashville yesterday, my travel buddy turned to me in shock that her AT&T network wasn't strong in the boonies of IL. I laughed since my Verizon signal was as strong as usual.

She told me, "I just don't understand, AT&T says it covers 97% of the country."

I thought about that and the commercials I have heard recently and realized that message was exactly what the phone company wants its customers to hear. But the truth of the matter is that the ads say they cover 97% of the population. So big cities, that are more population dense are covered while the sticks in rural IL or MO are not covered.

It got me thinking... for writing it is also about the little details and getting to the bottom of what someone is saying. Are we talking 97% of the country or 97% of the people here? It's the journalists job to ferret out the details on these vague and often purposely misleading statements.

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