Early Show's Misleading Graphic: 'Household Income Drops 79%'

This could go down as the most egregiously misleading graphic in morning show history.  Have a look at the screengrab. Reporting on census data being released today, the Early Show on CBS displayed a graphic, under the headline "Economic Crisis," reporting that in the first part of this decade--the early Bush years:

• Household income dropped 79%
• The poverty rate increased 70%
• Unemployment was up 71%

What??  If those number were true, they would reflect a depression making the 1930s look like life on easy street.

In fact, the percentages are not of absolute declines, but in the percentage of communities experiencing any decline.  In other words, according to census data, household income dropped in 79% of cities and towns, the poverty rate increased in 70% of communities, and unemployment increased in 71% of them.

Russ Mitchell, reporting on the survey, stated things accurately with respect to two of the parameters, but misrepresented the third. And the graphic wasn't merely misleading, it was dead wrong.  Many viewers were surely misled into believing that the economy was in crisis for much of the Bush administration.

RUSS MITCHELL: Census figures released this morning show the trouble in Detroit is just part of a far-reaching economic downturn in this country that began in the beginning of the decade.  The numbers I'm about to give you represent trends in the first five years of the new century: median household income dropped in 79% of cities and towns, poverty rates increased in 70%. Unemployment was up 71%.

So Mitchell got it right with respect to household income and the poverty rate.  But regarding unemployment, he flatly stated that it "was up 71%," rather than up in 71% of communities, as the data indicated.

CBS needs to correct its egregious error promptly. Will it?