Do the math(s)
By Andrew Grant-Adamson • Oct 18th, 2007 • Category: Journalism, Language, NewspapersA story in the Guardian headlined “Condi’s party surprise cost Britain $10,000″ ends with a quote from a British official: “There were 111 people there - some of them the most influential Americans in the administration. Do the math - it’s good value for money.”
Apart from the evidence that the British official has gone native in Washington, it is a fair point.
The headline use of $10,000 gives us what looks like a big number, translated in the text to £4,900. Simple arithmetic shows that the cost was around £45 a head for a dinner in the British embassy.
You can spend that sort of money for dinner in some pubs so it looks like a pretty good deal for a celebration for the woman who, at the time, was soon to become the US secretary of state.
I feel that the paper should have done the sum for its readers. But I guess a headline saying UK spent £45 a head on dinner for the Condoleezza Rice, President Bush and 109 others might have changed the complexion of the story.
Andrew Grant-Adamson is Andrew Grant-Adamson is a journalist who now teaches a new generation of writers, subs and editors at the University of Westminster.
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