Yesterday, the Lincoln Project’s Keith Edwards decided to put the Kabul terrorist attack in perspective, pointing out that 901 people died of COVID19 in Florida in a single day this week, and 901 is a lot more people than were killed in Kabul.
12 people died in Afghanistan.
901 died in in Florida yesterday because of covid.And you're mad at who?
— Keith Edwards (@keithedwards) August 26, 2021
Aside from being straight-up offensive, Edwards’ tweet was based on bad information. 901 people did not, in fact, die of COVID19 in Florida on Tuesday.
Florida reported 26,203 new COVID-19 infections and nine deaths Tuesday, according to data posted Wednesday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://t.co/0Pc91aY6lm
— FOX 13 Tampa Bay (@FOX13News) August 26, 2021
So where did that “901” number come from? Well, here’s the South Florida Sun Sentinel:
Florida’s COVID-19 resurgence: State reports 901 new deaths, bringing 7-day average to pandemic high https://t.co/kIA1jARmXG pic.twitter.com/VdvJOelfRj
— South Florida Sun Sentinel (@SunSentinel) August 27, 2021
They aren’t new deaths. They’re newly reported because there was a backlog, All except 8 are from previous days.
There was room in the tweet for the Sun Sentinel to explain this. https://t.co/GOwhSHsMbl
— The Nordau Center for Press Accountability (@MaxNordau) August 27, 2021
And here’s the Miami Herald:
Florida COVID update: 901 added deaths, largest single-day increase in pandemic history, 78% them in the last 2 weeks. In 2 news conferences today, @GovRonDeSantis made no mention of this grim trend, continued to focus on treatment and not on prevention. https://t.co/xiELP7itsm
— Mary Ellen Klas (@MaryEllenKlas) August 26, 2021
Recommended
Miami Herald headline: 901 deaths is the biggest one-day increase in pandemic history.
Miami Herald article: The 901 deaths actually took place over a period of more than four weeks.
They do this on purpose. pic.twitter.com/94SknHM2qF
— The Nordau Center for Press Accountability (@MaxNordau) August 26, 2021
“901 deaths today, the largest daily ever”
The Miami Herald consistently enables this. https://t.co/vAMCoT3kvD
— The Nordau Center for Press Accountability (@MaxNordau) August 27, 2021
It's difficult to write something more dishonest than "largest single-day increase in pandemic history," but some people will defend it as technically true.
— The Nordau Center for Press Accountability (@MaxNordau) August 27, 2021
Some people will defend it … like Devoun Cetoute, the guy who wrote the piece:
It’s alarming how many people interacted with this tweet
Reading the story and our transparency note would explain so much
CDC reports 901 more deaths to FL death total = single day increase
Death data is now by when people died not when FL reports it.
All explained in story. https://t.co/Mo9Qc5iJiM
— Devoun Cetoute (@devoun_cetoute) August 27, 2021
Great. But how many people don’t bother reading past the headline? The headline that says there were 901 deaths in a single day?
The reporter responds.
Cetoute correctly notes that his story explains that "single day increase" refers to one day of reporting updates, not one day of deaths.
But here's the problem: The HEADLINE doesn't explain that. So people inferred that 901 Floridians died in one day. https://t.co/meO4mNRShy
— The Nordau Center for Press Accountability (@MaxNordau) August 27, 2021
The HEADLINE is the first thing that people see. And it’s often the only thing that people see.
If you write 901 single day increase people are going to think it means 901 people died in one day…which they did not. https://t.co/FWiHPfr0oe
— Ben McDonald (@Bmac0507) August 27, 2021
That's not what a single day increase means.
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) August 27, 2021
By this logic New York state just had a single day increase of 12,000 deaths. https://t.co/JEbGGli9HE
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) August 27, 2021
NARRATOR: So the headline was misleading. On purpose. https://t.co/IDkNS6e3gi
— RBe (@RBPundit) August 27, 2021
It’s all but impossible to believe the headline wasn’t intentionally misleading.
The headline is the hook. It is dishonest on its face. Your readership, which lets face it, skews to one side of the political spectrum, and will not read beyond the headline because the headline validates their feelings. And yes, the context is your responsibility.
— Theodore Donald "Donny" Kerabatsos 😊 (@cpmmk4) August 27, 2021
You can’t pull this stuff and expect not to get called out for it.
If you call it a single-day increase, people will believe that it’s a single-day increase. https://t.co/tgeXNzUvyu
— The Nordau Center for Press Accountability (@MaxNordau) August 27, 2021
Yep.
Don't take my word for it.
Just search "901 deaths" on Twitter, and you'll see how many people believe that 901 Florida residents died of COVID in a single day: https://t.co/mvzLjitB9j
They believe this because they read the headlines printed by the Sun Sentinel & Miami Herald.
— The Nordau Center for Press Accountability (@MaxNordau) August 27, 2021
Searching for "901 Florida" returns even more results of people who believe that 901 people died of COVID in Florida in a single day: https://t.co/VeIcaXpqjn pic.twitter.com/8Mf1C6JlfV
— The Nordau Center for Press Accountability (@MaxNordau) August 27, 2021
Well, mission accomplished, then.