Truthspotting

Going along with the theme of this particular New York Times article on healthcare anecdotes (the general subtexts are touched - what is wrong with you people, nobody has healthcare, mass deprivation, insert hand-wringing here), a question arises: If this is true regarding the number of individuals "lining up" for free healthcare in Los Angeles, CA:

Hundreds of volunteer doctors, dentists, optometrists, nurses and others are expected to serve 8,000 patients by the end of the eight days.

How does the remaining population of Los Angeles county not queued up at the end of eight days (9,854,049 individuals or 99.9% of the total county population not involved) get by on the health front? Afterall, if the "problem" of healthcare is so acute one would expect the free facility to be absolutely gridlocked.

Not going along with the theme of the article, how are these bits of information reconciled:

For the second day in a row, thousands of people lined up on Wednesday — starting after midnight and snaking into the early hours — for free dental, medical and vision services, courtesy of a nonprofit group that more typically provides mobile health care for the rural poor.

Set up for eight days of care, the group was already overwhelmed on the first day after allowing 1,500 people through the door, nearly 500 of whom had still not been served by day’s end and had to return in the wee hours Wednesday morning.

On Tuesday, volunteers provided 1,448 services to about 600 patients, including 95 tooth extractions, 470 fillings, 140 pairs of eyeglasses,96 Pap smears and 93 tuberculosis tests, the organizers said.

"Thousands", in the general sense, implies some plural version of "thousand" (singular). The article itself shows 1,600 (hundreds not thousands) individuals being treated after day two. The number of individuals "lining up" rather means nothing, unless of course the story needs a bit of a dramatic punch. No, this is not nit-picking. The intention of the story is to imply "thousands" of Angelinos are desperate and scrounging creatures thirsting for even the glimpse of an aspirin.

The above, yet another healthcare article which reinforces and underlines the no-doubt straight-faced musing of one reporter on the subject:

But Jessica Yellin, CNN's national political correspondent, commenting on Senator Cardin's town meeting in Hagerstown, Md., pointed out what news people already know: when journalists cite outright misstatements by public officials, the American people "don't seem to trust us."

Gosh, really?