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How To Misuse Statistics

Posted by samzenpus on from the lies-and-damned-lies dept.

Attila Dimedici writes "This story does a great job of showing how statistics are misused by comparing the incidence of voting for Democrats to the incidence of cancer. While the story has a strong ideological bias, it does a good job of poking fun at the way politicians (and others) misuse statistics."

1 of 20 comments (clear)

  1. Strong Ideological Bias? by GiveBenADollar · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ahh, but if a similar study was published against republicans it would be unbiased and informative about misuse of statistics. Here's an easy test for political bias. If a news agency lists a politician involved in a scandal and does not report (or buried in the story.) the political affiliation of the politician they are of party X. If the news agency blankets the story with party connections including ties to prominent political figures they are of party Y. Read/Watch for a while and you will quickly be able to fill in the X and the Y for most media outlets.