Great example of how to manipulate data

I was reading this article from Reuters: Americans give record-low marks to economy, in ominous sign for Republicans. Towards the end of the article they have this sentence:

“Indeed, food prices were unchanged last month and egg prices have fallen 45% in the last year, the most ever, a fact Trump frequently cites.”

A 45 percent decrease in anything over the course of one year, let alone egg prices, is a remarkable accomplishment. The problem is it’s not true. Or at least the reason it is true has nothing to do with the president or anyone in government for that matter.

The reason that eggs prices dropped so much in price in such a short period of time is because they increased so much in price in a similarly short amount of time the two years before. The bird flu in 2024 - 2025 caused farmers to cull (kill) over 190 million chickens, which drastically reduced the supply of eggs, and dramatically increased the cost of eggs.

The recent drop in price, close to 45 percent, is because farmers have been able to ramp up eggs production over the last year. Increasing supply, relieving pressure on demand, and therefore dropping prices.

Manipulation of data, language, events, is what we’re up against every day. The thing I wonder about is if media outlets, and their authors, like this one from Reuters, are being intentionally deceitful or woefully ignorant when writing. What’s the difference? The former is intentional and begs the question why? While the latter makes me wonder what it takes to become a journalist in the first place.

Or maybe there is no difference at all, because the outcome is the same: a misinformed public with no one held accountable.