Figure 1: Original Chart was published in Newsweek's June 8 2009 print version. Look at the two pink areas we colored-in above. Luxembourg’s purchase of $106.1 billion is 50% smaller than “All Others” at $156.7 billion. Yet Newsweek makes the $106.1 section larger than the $156.7 section? Why?
(Michael Melford, National Geographic Stock Photos).
With all the sensitivity about the topic of total U.S. Treasury debt, Newsweek should have been up to the task when making a pie chart out of a Buffalo graphic to represent foreign government ownership. Instead they came up with Grade F mystery meat.
The back page chart in Newsweek’s June 8, 2009, print issue, a new section featured in their re-design, was supposed to visualize the proportion of U.S. debt owned by foreign countries. The meat cuts graphic wryly suggests America, via our Buffalo symbol, is being butchered and consumed by foreign government debt.
But look at the two pink areas we colored in. See Figure above. Luxembourg’s purchase of $106.1 billion is 50% smaller than “All Others” at $156.7 billion. Yet Newsweek makes the $106.1 section larger than the $156.7 section?
Bloggers wrote about Newsweek's buffalo chart, in the context of their newly launched design, but apparently didn't notice anything wrong.
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