Back in March Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords made a statement responding to Sarah Palin's anti-healthcare reform campaign, saying, "we're on Sarah Palin's targeted list. But the thing is the way that she has it depicted has the cross hairs of a gun site over our district." Could metaphors in that statement have had an effect on who Jared Loughner targeted in Arizona over the weekend?

Whether it’s the casualty count in Afghanistan, the national deficit or the size of an earthquake – numbers help us communicate. But are telling the numbers the best way to tell a news story?