Don't bother me with the details

I was squirming all day today. These figures about the protestors costing the city of SF $900,000(or $1 Million depending) a day make me itch. My skin began to break into hives when I saw Willie Brown saying that other programs would have to suffer to pay off these costs.

I spotted the story on KRON. They gave us nice graphics detailing where $900,000 a day(AP) was going:

http://www.kron.com/Global/story.asp?S=1194677

I've also heard varying reports of the same nature on other local news shows but never with the detail that KRON broadcast.

So I called KRON to find the source of these exacting figures. The assignment desk didn't remember the story nor were they inclined to look at it with me online to determine who was responsible for it. They forwarded me to Ross Palombo's(http://www.kron.com/Global/story.asp?S=484937&nav=5D8G4ohB) voice mail, twice. I am still not certain why. Well, I await his call.

I noticed two things on the article from the web. One, that the story was credited to AP and two, the figures(graphics on left) were attributed to The City of San Francisco.

So I called AP regional. Their representative carefully listened to me and visited the KRON website with me. After looking at the story and cross referencing, she found the full length story that KRON's quoted ("What? That's not the full story?" I asked. "Our subscribers can cut up the story however they like," she replied.). I asked her if the figures in the graphic appeared anywhere in the full story. Only the $900,000 a day figure(estimate of costs) and the budget deficit of $350 million.

"Nothing about the individual department costs?"

"No. We write for a global audience. People in Des Moins don't know what MUNI even is. And those graphics aren't AP's either. You should call KRON."

"I have and they don't seem to know the source."

"They don't know the source of the figures in their own graphic? Hmmm."

Ok. That's what I thought.

I called the City of San Francisco next. But instead of calling the Mayor's Office to speak with the current press secretary I thought I would be better suited asking the people in control of the money, the ones who do the accounting, The City Controller's Office. I left a message for one of the employees. Almost immediately, I got a call back.

I asked if they were the source of the figures appearing in the news report. The person said that they did not have any exact figures and if they had they never would have been released. They went on to add that they had asked this specific question of the Controller, Ed Harrington yesterday and that he confirmed no figures had been compiled or released.
(I have a feeling my contact is pretty high up and will not mention names to protect them from any sort of retribution for telling the truth.)

So the mystery of the specifics is still out there. I wonder, if the specifics are obviously not coming from any reliable source and the cited sources claim they are not the source, how sound are the base facts?