Lies, Darn Lies, and Modern Media Statistics
Most of us have utilized our unfettered, nearly-instantaneous access to an nigh-infinite amount of information to make sure we never learn a darn thing we don’t want too.
“Statistics,” the late great Vin Scully quipped, “are used much like a drunk uses a lamp post: for support, not illumination.”
We are adrift in the mathematical body of science that pertains to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation, and presentation of data: Statistics, in the vernacular, or stats in the slang. No people in all of human history have had more unfettered, nearly-instantaneous access to an nigh-infinite amount of information as we do in our present dispensation of time.
West Virginians especially hear about statistics. For decades now, how many headlines, think pieces, commentaries, or news items have revolved around the latest statistics of how West Virginia is ranked 48th in this, 49th in that, or 50th out of 50 states in some other thing? Or conversely, how the latest census data showed the Mountain State as number one, or more truthfully the only, state to lose population. Stats on health care, education, income, poverty, opioid use, business environment, on and on and on goes the list of numbers and…
