OPINION:
Today we label it “misinformation” and fear it, but media falsehoods and half-truths are nothing new. Soviet Russia used them routinely, only we called that “propaganda.” Journalist Darrell Huff’s best-selling “How to Lie with Statistics,” meanwhile, testifies to deception’s long western history. The provocative 1954 book outlines ways in which perfectly legitimate numbers can be framed to appear to validate something they don’t.
While data massaging or total fabrications seem particularly vile, even certified data can be honestly contested. A shining example: the national unemployment rate being billed as an epic low in 2023. Critics argued that the jobless who have stopped looking for work shouldn’t be excluded from calculations.
Is low inflation acceptable when it’s coupled with steep prices on food, housing and health insurance? Is crime down if homicides have increased where you live? Is an increase in total jobs a win if many of those jobs are menial, low-paying positions?
Taken together, it can come down to personal perception. Op-ed pages, public surveys, court trials and elections hinge on it. And between inherent data complexities and reliability issues, the timeworn practice of employing “gut feeling” to make wide-ranging decisions could persist forever.
President Trump has long been criticized for relying too much on intuition in his decision making. Owing to the difficulties above, however, it’s often a defensible approach. And I’ll trust his instincts over any liberal’s.
TOM GREGG
Niles, Illinois
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