Maybe I’m being unfair, but when Ted Koppel misspeaks and tells Jon Stewart that China has “1.3 million people,” I can’t help but think of his 2000 comment about the debate over George W. Bush’s proposed tax cuts:

KING: OK. Were you impressed with this fuzzy, top 1 percent, 1.3 trillion, 1.9 trillion bit?

KOPPEL: You know, honestly, it turns my brains to mush. I can’t pretend for a minute that I’m really able to follow the argument of the debates. Parts of it, yes. Parts of it, I haven’t a clue what they’re talking about.

The quantitative illiteracy of the press corps is a national disgrace.