AP dials Waterford, Calif., for ‘recession,’ other input

In an Associated Press story released Sunday with a lead touching on empty homes and for-sale signs, lost jobs and nest eggs taking a hit, a Washington-based economics writer’s second paragraph asked:  Could the country be in a recession?

Three paragraphs down, came the answer via the first person quoted:  “Absolutely, we’re in a recession.”

Was that conclusion reached by (select one):

A --- An economics professor from Harvard.

B --- An executive with a Wall Street investment firm.

C --- A hedge fund manager.

D --- A spokesman for Fed chairman Ben Bernanke.

E --- None of the above.

Answer:  E.

The definitive word came from Hilda Sanchez of Waterford, Calif., population 9,000, in California’s central valley, 2,283 miles from Washington, D.C.  There was no further identification of the woman other than her age, 44.

Sanchez’s name popped out of an AP-Ipsos poll that found 61 percent of the public believes the economy is “suffering through its first recession since 2001.”

The Waterford resident is popular.

Sanchez’s name was in another AP story two days earlier.  That piece, also based on the AP-Ipsos poll last week following Congress’s passage of the stimulus bill, found pulling out of the war in Iraq ranked first among proposed remedies “to get the country out of recession.”

And guess who had a comment on that?

Hilda Sanchez, 44, of Waterford, Calif.

“Let’s stop paying for this war,” Sanchez told the survey.  “There are a lot of people who are struggling.  We can use the money to pay for medical care and help people who were put out of their homes.”

AP-Ipsos said the poll was conducted Feb. 4 to 6 through telephone interviews with 1,006 adults.