Thog's Science Masterclass #23

[realthog]

Thanks to Wonkette for posting a screengrab of a wonderful pi-chart prepared by Faux News to show the different levels of support enjoyed by the supposed GOP frontrunners for 2012.

Apparently 60% of Americans back Romney, 63% back Huckabee, and a stonking 70% back Palin.

Wow!

That'll be 193% of the population voting Republican in 2012, then.

Comments

[realthog.livejournal.com]

They might. Since posting I've been told the original poll was good . . . and that what it was reporting on was percentages of registered Repugs who regarded each of the three as a viable candidate; in that context it's perfectly sensible to have a total over 100%, because of course many people, especially those undergoing treatment, will regard two or all three as viable candidates. Unfortunately, FAUX seemingly "interpreted" these results a little before presenting them to their audience.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see what happened. The actual company is Opinion Dynamics, which Fox credited as Opinions Dynamic, hence ensuring that a google search would turn up nothing except confused people on democracy underground wondering what the hell Fox's source was.

The pie chart formation is still epic fail.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

The pie chart formation is still epic fail.

Oh, mightily so.

It's kind of symptomatic of the FAUX News inadequacy to master even the most rudimentary aspects of the Scientific Method (like, Make Sure You Get Your Data Right) that they can't even think it important to make sure they render the source's name correctly. Presumably they don't think it's important. Or maybe they're like all those Ann Coulter fans who're wildly impressed by the number of her footnotes -- that provesshe's academically rigorous, see? -- without ever considering it might be relevant whether or not all those footnotes contain utmost bullshit.

(Some brave soul did sit down with one of her books and discovered something like 9 out of 10 -- I kid you not -- of her footnoted sources stated the opposite of what she was claiming they stated. This did nothing to dissuade her devotees from the claim that her footnotes proved her accuracy.)

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

LOL. I stay as far away from Coulter as possible, so I hadn't heard of the footnotes argument.