Stupid Stats in the News

by rrusczyk, Oct 1, 2009, 9:42 PM

What I learned on Headline News today: 37 schoolchildren in Chicago have died in the last 2 years. 17 people from Illinois have died in Iraq or Afghanistan in the last 7-8 years. Therefore, Chicago schools are way more dangerous than Iraq and Afghanistan.

When you can pick that apart, congratulations, you're smarter than Headline News.

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7 Comments

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Did they just present it like that?

by Mewto55555, Oct 2, 2009, 1:58 AM

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This reminds me of a bit a while back in which Bill O'Reilly tried to rationalize Canada's higher life expectancy with "the US has more people, so more die". Sort of a mirror version of this fallacy.

by jmerry, Oct 2, 2009, 6:28 AM

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Yes, precisely like that Complete with the background music and a graphic with these two data points. Then they brought on Jesse Jackson to repeat it, but with slightly different numbers and timeframes.

As stupid as MSNBC, Fox, and CNN are, they're all brilliant compared with HLN (or at least, brilliant compared to the HLN show that's on at 2 in the afternoon). Well, maybe not Glenn Beck... Or Chris Matthews...

by rrusczyk, Oct 2, 2009, 1:03 PM

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Beck, of course, comes from the wonderful training grounds of HLN...

by yjneb, Oct 2, 2009, 4:10 PM

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That explains a lot. They seem to have taught him a great deal about rational discourse.

by rrusczyk, Oct 2, 2009, 6:51 PM

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I thought you didn't watch TV =P

by joml88, Oct 3, 2009, 2:48 AM

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Only at the gym -- I would never choose to watch HLN, for sure. I'm on the stair-climber and in walks someone who fires up HLN. I'm just thankful it's not Ellen or Dr Phil or something like that.

by rrusczyk, Oct 4, 2009, 2:29 AM

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