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Political Tall Tales http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AMERICA_FALLS_SHORT?SITE=FLMYR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Is this another example of " accountability journalism http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110010205 "?

The Associated Press reports on a mildly interesting new statistic--the average citizen in some European countries is now taller than the average American--and vests it with great political significance:
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America used to be the tallest country in the world.
From the days of the founding fathers right on through the industrial revolution and two world wars, Americans towered over other nations. In a land of boundless open spaces and limitless natural abundance, the young nation transformed its increasing wealth into human growth.
But just as it has in so many other arenas, America's predominance in height has faded.
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What are the "so many other areas" in which "America's predominance . . . has faded"? AP reporter Matt Crenson never gets around to telling us. Instead, he tries to explain why the shift in relative heights is significant:
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Many economists would argue that it does matter, because height is correlated with numerous measures of a population's well-being. Tall people are healthier, wealthier and live longer than short people. Some researchers have even suggested that tall people are more intelligent.
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So are Americans sicker, poorer, shorter-lived and less intelligent than countries with taller populations? Definitely not poorer:
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In the Czech Republic, per capita income is barely half of what it is in the United States. Even so, Czechs are taller than Americans. So are Belgians, who collect 84 percent as much income as Americans.
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Shorter-lived, perhaps--but only slightly:
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Life expectancy in the Netherlands is 79.11 years; in Sweden it's 80.63. America's life expectancy of 78.00 years puts it in somewhat shorter company, just above Cyprus and a few notches below Bosnia-Herzegovina.
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Crenson presents no evidence that Americans are sicker, though he does dwell on the fact that some do not have health insurance. And he never addresses the question of intelligence. He does, however, quote John Komlos, an economic historian at the University of Munich, who offers this explanation for America's vertically challenged state:
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"In some ways it gets to the fundamentals of the American society, namely what is the ideology of the American society and what are the shortcomings of that ideology," Komlos said. "I would argue that to take good care of its children is not part of that ideology."
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American's don't care about their children, the Associated Press reports!