Fri Feb 10 2012

The Washington Post’s trouble with numbers Mexico after NAFTA
by Seth Sandronsky
May 29, 2006

On April 17, the Washington Post ran an article about Mexico’s economy and the North American Free Trade Agreement, which took effect on January 1, 1994. Part of the focus was on market forces and the flight of some Mexicans to the U.S.

“Still, the past 13 years haven't been all bad economic news for Mexico,” wrote Manuel Roig-Franzia of the Post’s Foreign Service. “Spurred by NAFTA, Mexico's gross domestic product has ballooned, multiplying nearly seven-fold, from $108 billion in 1993, the year before NAFTA implementation, to $748 billion in 2005.”

If the Post’s data for Mexico’s GDP, or the market price of all goods and services produced within the country annually, was correct, it would be a world record for economic growth, according to economist Dean Baker, co-director of Center for Economic and Policy Review. Thus, economists and staff at the CEPR repeatedly contacted the Post concerning the assertion that Mexico’s GDP grew at a 17.5 percent annual rate over the past 13 years.

In fact, Mexico’s GDP grew at a 2.9 percent annual rate since 1993, the International Monetary Fund states on its Web site. Mexico’s per person GDP growth was 1.3 percent per year from 1993 to 2005 versus GDP growth per person of nearly 4.0 percent per year between 1960 and 1980, Baker adds.

Crucially, the Mexican economy as measured by GDP grew at an annual rate six times slower than what the Post reported for the 13 years ending in 2005. This is no small error for the top paper in the capital city of the U.S.

Does the IMF have a lock on growth figures for Mexico? No.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Bank also have GDP data for Mexico. And as of May 26, the Post had not printed a correction to its April 17 article, which reported that the Mexican economy “has ballooned” between 1993 and 2005.

Still, the paper’s ombudsman wrote on May 7: “The Washington Post is committed to correcting all errors that appear in the newspaper, just as we are committed to the kind of careful journalism that will minimize the number of errors we print. Preventing and correcting mistakes are two sides of the coin of our realm: accuracy. Accuracy is our goal, and candor is our defense.”

The April 17 article ran on the front page of the Post. If the paper corrects the reporter’s error on Mexico’s GDP, will this admission find a home on page one?

---
Seth Sandronsky is a member of Sacramento Area Peace Action and a co-editor of Because People Matter, Sacramento's progressive paper. He can be reached at ssandron@hotmail.com

Recent Media Watch Articles

Flirting with fascism on CNN Headline News; Host Glenn Beck threatens Muslims with concentration camps
December 8, 2006
Marvin Wingfield

The theft of American elections is a media issue
October 31, 2006
Andi Novick, Northeast Citizens for Responsible Media

The cablization of network news
September 3, 2006
David Swanson

How the mainstream media consistently panders to the right and screws the left
June 9, 2006
The Ostroy Report

When journalists manufacture a crisis: What decline for Social Security and Medicare?
June 6, 2006
Seth Sandronsky

The Washington Post’s trouble with numbers Mexico after NAFTA
May 29, 2006
Seth Sandronsky

Iran through the media
April 19, 2006
David Swanson

The consequences of irresponsible media: Americans have lost the right to vote
March 17, 2006
Andi Novick, www.re-media.org

Right on schedule, Baker and Washington Post come to Cheney's rescue
February 21, 2006
August Keso

New Jason Leopold book: news junkie
February 9, 2006
Process Media

War lies and journalistic constipation
January 22, 2006
David Swanson