Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Can US Citizens Trust Government Data? (msn.com)
mmell writes: An editorial in the Washington Post and made publicly available via an MSN news feed has asked the question: "In the Trump administration era of 'alternative facts,' what happens to government data?" Given that Slashdot members (and readers) may represent a somewhat more in-the-know crowd on matters concerning data integrity and trustworthiness, I thought this would be a good place to ask: can we trust (or has anyone ever really trusted) government data? One might think government data would all be cut 'n' dried and not subject to manipulation, but I personally remember when government data back early in the Reagan presidency went from reporting nearly 15% unemployment nationwide to well under 6% by redefining what "unemployed" meant. So . . . has government data ever been trustworthy, and is it still so?
>> I wouldn't trust anything coming from Trumps office for shit...
Would you have honestly trusted data coming from Hillary's office had she become president?
I would trust that Hillary would not have sent people into the NOAA, NASA, to either 'adjust data' to suit the alt-right world view or intimidate scientist into doing it. Trump on the other hand has openly declared his intention to crack down on scientists that come to conclusions which are incompatible with his world view and inconvenient for the fossil fuel industry.