Reporters and their editors (and the corporations that employ them) have the
power to shape readers' perceptions by, for instance, choosing what fact to
put first in a story or which expert to quote in what context. But the most
powerful tool is the simplest: the headline. Because many people read only
that, and many others have their perception of an article shaped by the first
words they see, this sentence fragment is frequently as important as everything
that comes after.
Consider this, from the Associated Press:
Foreign
Holdings of US Treasury Debt Hits Record
Foreign buyers of U.S. Treasury securities increased their holdings in March
to a record high.
The Treasury Department said Thursday that total foreign holdings rose 1
percent to $5.95 trillion from $5.89 trillion in February.
China, the largest foreign buyer of Treasury debt, reduced its holdings
by less than 0.01 percent to $1.27 trillion. Japan, the second-largest buyer,
cut its holdings 0.8 percent to $1.2 trillion.
Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, major oil exporting nations and Caribbean
countries involved in banking all increased their holdings. Meanwhile, Russia
shed almost 21 percent of its holdings in March following international tensions
over its move to annex part of Ukraine.
Russia controls $100.4 billion worth of U.S. Treasury securities, or just
1.7 percent of all foreign holdings. The United States and Russia have imposed
sanctions on each other after parts of the Crimean Peninsula with ethnic
and political ties to Russia began an attempt to secede from Ukraine in late
February.
Foreign demand for U.S. Treasury securities is expected to remain strong
this year, aided by more borrowing certainty with a congressional agreement
to suspend the debt limit until March 2015.
Now, let's tease out a few facts:
Trading powers China and Japan cut their Treasury holdings, while superpower
wannabe Russia dumped fully one-fifth of its dollar-denominated debt. Meanwhile,
Belgium and Luxembourg and a few others more than made up the slack, enabling
the Associated Press to open with a glowingly-positive message (foreign investors
love dollars!).
The truth appears to be something else entirely. How could Belgium and Luxembourg
(total combined population 12 million) buy enough US debt to offset Russia
dumping 21% of its Treasuries? The answer is that it's highly unlikely they
would do this in a single month unless they're part of an under-the-table deal
through which Western powers are hiding the fact that major holders of dollars
appear to be losing faith in the currency and/or bridling at US foreign policy
arrogance.
So the cover-up is the real story, and a more honest headline would feature
Belgium's purchases and the reasons for this shift in dollar ownership. ";Russia
sells Treasuries while Belgium buys; analysts wonder why" would be both more
honest and more provocative without being sensationalistic.
But of course it would also pose a difficult question, which is apparently
no longer the corporate media's job.