Major Rules for All Informed Citizens, II

Never blindly trust statistical information given by the media. Sometimes members of the media shade the truth to further their own viewpoint; sometimes they gullibly accept bogus figures from public relations flacks without any attempt at verification.

Let me give you just two examples. Back in 1968 NARAL (National Abortion Rights League) told the eager media that 10,000 women died from botched abortions every year. The actual number was between 200 and 250, but they repeated the 10,000 number so frequently that the people accepted that as fact. Many who had previously opposed abortion began to change their minds because of the supposed loss of so many young women each year. Since the early nineties, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, one of the founders of NARAL, has repeatedly exposed his own deception, but hardly anyone pays attention. The public believes that since Roe vs Wade about 10,000 lives have been saved each year.

Yesterday James Taranto, in his “Best of the Web” column, exposed a more recent example. This time the National Center on Family Homelessness reported that in 2005-2006 (Bush administration) one in fifty American children experienced homelessness. Read the whole article to get the details, but needless to say, the actual figure is far, far lower than that.

Now, you have two rules to consider every day:
1. Pay attention to what’s not being covered when silly stories continue day after day.
2. "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." Mark Twain