Journalistic malpractice

It seems there's a story from the New York Times which is, strictly speaking, true. But there's a lot more that doesn't reach the headline.

It is, in the seething, barely constrained words of Michael Medved, "journalistic malpractice." Medved sheds a little clarity on the numbers behind the story, which the paper attributes to an NYT analysis of 2005 Census Bureau data.

• The 51% includes girls from 15 to 18, the vast majority of whom are unmarried and living with one or two parents.
• It includes widows -- a growing segment of the population -- who are hardly making a statement against marriage just because their spouse died.
• And it even includes women who are married, but whose husbands are temporarily away on business. That includes the wives of our military men, who, I'm sure, are thrilled that their sacrificial service to our country in support of their husbands is being interpreted by the NYT as being a choice against marriage.

Of course, breaking out those numbers from the 51% would tell a different story, and apparently one the NY Times doesn't want to tell.