Last night, I arrived home to find that Obama and Congress had apparently reached a deal on the debt ceiling. As you all know, I’ve been following this story obsessively, so naturally I wanted to know what the deal was. So I clicked on the story and started reading. Markets were watching, Obama had a tough job selling it to his more liberal colleagues, Boehner would have a balancing act trying to draw in enough Democrats while not losing Repulicans, etc., etc. It wasn’t until the second page that they even vaguely described what the deal was! And I do mean vague!
Another thing: as someone who has followed this very closely, there are some important contextual issues I have no idea about. For instance, various figures for the deficit reduction package have been floating around — $4 trillion, $2.7 trillion, $1.2 trillion. How much is that as a percentage of total projected federal spending? By what percentage would such savings reduce the projected 10-year deficit? Are there any categories of spending, the elimination of which would be roughly equivalent to the amount of cuts proposed? By what percentage are they proposing to raise the debt ceiling? When was the last time it was raised, and by how much, both in absolute and percentage terms?
All of these questions could be answered using Google and a pocket calculator. But the reporters and editors at the greatest newspaper on earth apparently can’t be bothered.
An und für sich 
Good point, Adam. I just clicked on a story to get the details myself and all I read about was the “anger” of the American people. In short, the article just lists opinions of people across the US from all over the political landscape with no one really happy but also no one completely clear why they are not. The one clear thing the article tries to express is that those who concretely identify themselves as Right or Left are pissed…
Here’s a story that includes information about some of the matters I complain about: here.