Friday, September 22, 2006

What a strange way to put it... Read the last sentence on the quoted text from a CTV article on two Womans groups getting funding. Theres something fishy going on.

LINK
Board member Alison Dewar said the association was relieved to find the government thought they were still worthy of funding. The association has been getting government cash for decades in its efforts to educate women on legal issues and to support key court cases.

Dewar said it will receive $290,000 for a year's worth of funding, rather than $350,000 for 18 months as it did last year.

That sounds like they're getting shafted, doesn't it? At least until you do the math.

$290,000 for 12 months is (290,000 / 12) $24166.66 per month.

$350,000 for 18 months is (350,000 / 18) $19444.44 per month.

The funding levels went up. But why did the journalist write the sentence in such a confusing way? Look two sentences above the bolded text.

Board member Alison Dewar said the association was relieved to find the government thought they were still worthy of funding

And that my friend is a classic example of the fiction writers tool, foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is used to get the reader into the right mindset for the next event to be more emotionally effective. Creaking floor boards before the slasher attacks, eyes like limpid pools before the love scene, etcetera, etcetera.

In this biased piece the “author” is setting up the reader to believe the worst out of a purposely ambiguous sentence.

Not very subtle if this gimpy old fart can figure it out.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home