Numbers and Narratives

Brad Peck

Josh Harkinson, of Mother Jones, took offense at my post from yesterday in which Mother Jones is mentioned. They were only there however, because Pearlstein put them there:

"In response to an inquiry from Mother Jones, the chamber acknowledged that its actual paid membership is only 300,000"

Which Pearlstein derived from this post titled "US Chamber Shrinks Membership 90%" which clearly implies that a) we changed our position and b) did so in response to Mother Jones' reporting. Pearlstein runs with this narrative.

I am not saying, as Harkinson asserts, that "Mother Jones as an untrustworthy news source that shouldn't be relied upon by the mainstream media." But the fact is Mother Jones has a declared perspective while the Washington Post does not. If Pearlstein is going to use Mother Jones as a source he needs to recognize their perspective and adjust.

Harkinson then asks me some questions predicated on the notion that we claim 3 million members dishonestly -- which I am not going to answer because we don't. Here is our boilerplate:

The U.S. Chamber is the world's largest business federation representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region.

There is nothing dishonest in this statement; just as I am sure that there is nothing dishonest about how Mother Jones represents their reach. From their advertising page:

Mother Jones magazine and motherjones.com deliver more than 2,000,000 engaged and highly educated thought-leaders and influentials.

But their print page doesn't have a circulation number (230,000 an issue according to Wikipedia)-- and the web advertising page shows 600,000 unique visitors a month.

The 230k probably doesn't change much from month to month and I'm sure is some overlap on the monthly unique visitors, so not sure how they get to the two million figure; but I'm sure they have a formula which is quite honest. We do too.

Comments

[shelley]

Looks like Steven Colbert was right, the truth has a liberal bias. For this guy to put up a number from Mother Jones without a time span is the way right wingers always try to manipulate the truth. They have to be contortionists in order to make their "truth" actually fit the facts while the left just gives the facts as they are. Ask yourself Mr. Peck, why you have to try so hard to make yoru point? It is because your philosophy of profits over all else is evil and cannot be justified. Once you leave the "dark side" you will find it much more rewarding to support what is good for the country and for mankind as a whole. No more BSing to push a greed-motivated agenda. Join the real moralists, be they atheists, humanists or people of the monotheistic systems. Because all of those faiths or non-faiths, when practiced with reverence, believe in the protection of planet and the life already born and living on it. Greed has one faith, getting rich no matter the consequences to man, beast or planet. Come over to the bright side. There are much greater things in life than money even though you and all of your corrupted (because they don't know) cohorts wouldn't have any concept of such a pure view on life.

[Truthmonger]

Here's a snapshot of your claim of 3,000,000 members, and if you care to look at a September NY Times article, you also claim 3 million members.

People like you really hate facts.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/photo.php?pid=2894309&op=1&o=global&view=global&subj=32682889528&id=644121864

[Aaron]

The Mother Jones 2 million claim doesn't come withe a time limit. They reach 600,000 unique visitors A MONTH. 2 million per year seems perfectly plausible with those sort of numbers.

The Chamber's claims on the other hand are about raw membership and are much more muddled.

[ChamberPost]

Josh,
I don’t say that your questions are “predicated on a notion” I say they are “predicated on the notion that we claim 3 million members dishonestly.” We make the distinction between direct members and businesses we represent as members of our larger Federation. You don’t believe that our description of our representation is a valid one -- we believe it is. You can believe what you believe and report on what you believe, we will continue to do the same. (BP)

[Josh Harkinson]

The short answer is that Mother Jones has never claimed 2 million subscribers. But the Chamber repeatedly claims 3 million "members." If you wanted to call them something other than "members," such as "underlying members" (which is the term you used early in the reign of Donohue), then fine. But you do not have 3 million "members."

It also sad and telling that you can't be bothered to answer my six questions because they are "predicated on a notion." Many if not most questions are predicated on a notion. Take the question, "What is the address of the US Chamber of Commerce?" That question might be predicated on the notion that you could walk into the Chamber and have your questions answered, or receive membership benefits based on your membership in your local chamber. Too bad both of those things are wrong.