When is a headline accurate and very misleading?

By Lee Russ

Friday, June 16, 2006 at 06:49 PM

Truth and accuracy just may not always be the same thing.  Check out this headline, which turns out to be "true" but also to be very misleading if you read a little way into the story (emphasis added):

Current Account Trade Deficit Narrows
Current account trade deficit posts unexpectedly large improvement

WASHINGTON, Jun. 16, 2006
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer

The deficit in the broadest measure of foreign trade narrowed sharply in the first three months of this year after setting an all-time high at the end of 2005.

America's current account trade deficit fell to $208.7 billion in the January-March quarter, down 6.5 percent from a record $223.1 billion deficit set in the final three months of last year, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

The improvement exceeded expectations although it still left the quarterly deficit at the second highest level on record and the equivalent of 6.4 percent of the total U.S. economy, down from 7 percent in the fourth quarter.

Yes, indeed.  "Thank God we're only suffering the second worst fire in the history of the town!"
I love business journalism or, as we here in the ditches call it, "Golly that's a pretty corpse" cheerleading.