I AM STUPID. SO SAYS THE MEDIA.

In my morning readings I came across this gem:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-12-11-seattle-reading_x.htm

The summation of the articles is that it's a listing of the "10 most literate cities in America," along with a bit of explaining of the criteria used to determine who made the list and some tidbits masquerading as factoids.

At first glance, this might seem like a bit of harmless fluff that allows people in the top cities to pat themselves on the back. But something didn't ring right with this, so I read it a second time a bit more carefully. In doing so, several things seemed a bit odd:

1) With the exception of Atlanta, every city at the top is in a cold climate. Isn't it quite probable that people in San Diego, Durham, Austin and Charlotte might be doing less recreational reading because they're not confined indoors?

2) Newspaper circulation and checking out library books (as well as the number bookstores) are the main factors in how literate your city is. So... if you're getting the paper online instead of subscribing, how are you being counted? It's the same for podcasts and audiobooks winning out over library subscriptions. I, as an example, read quite a bit daily: periodicals, books, and online news. (I do declare that I got this article came from USA Today online!) I haven't seen the inside of a library nor subscribed to a newspaper in 8 or 10 years.

I am not alone. The public's habits have changed; how can John Miller even suggest that newspaper circulation is "one of the best indicators of literate behavior," and that if you don't subscribe to a newspaper that the next best source is whether you go to the library for news? What kind of a dinosaur is this guy? In his world, I'm not even counted.

3) What kind of agenda is being pushed forward by trying to imply that "literate" cities voted for Kerry and, therefore, "illiterate" cities voted for Bush? News flash: urban areas (sometimes known as "cities") largely vote Democratic. C'mon; Marion County (Indianapolis) IN voted for Kerry! It's more news that any major metropolitan areas vote Republican.

It's troubling that this snippet made it through the editorial department. Not only was the last presidential election was 2 years ago (ahem...get over it) but politics are a bit deeper than "dumb asses vote Republican while geniuses vote Democratic." What we have is a blatant example of finding some piece of evidence and using it to make a sweeping judgement to attempt to subtly sway public opinion. Eisenhower warned of the military/industrial complex. I say that equally troubling is the media/educational institution complex.

I certainly don't doubt that the cities mentioned have extremely literate people as they all have high levels of college graduates and people in creative and technical fields. But this study is not just flawed; it shouldn't even be given credence.