Month: August 2009
-
Daily News names and shames McCaughey
David Saltonstall deserves major credit for this story, which directly identifies Betsy McCaughey as the primary source of the euthanasia myth and traces its spread through the health care reform debate: Former Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey leads ‘death panel’ charge writing up talking points Sarah Palin may have fanned the fire over President Obama’s fictitious
-
A health care reporting scorecard
As misinformation becomes a central issue in the health care debate, we’re seeing some excellent examples of how news organizations should handle reporting on deceptive claims, but they’re largely exceptions to the rule. On the positive side, Kate Snow of ABC News deserves credit for a television report in which she correctly describes the “death
-
More GOP birthers in heavily black states?
[Update (6/30/10): Serious questions have been raised about the validity of Research 2000’s polls. The results discussed below should thus be viewed as potentially suspect until the matter is resolved.] Two new polls are out measuring the state-level prevalence of the misperception that President Obama is not a citizen of this country. Tom Jensen of
-
White House health care “Reality Check” site
The White House has launched a Health Insurance Reform Reality Check website to try to counter myths about the legislation pending in Congress such as the false claim that it will promote euthanasia. Given my research on the difficulty of correcting misperceptions (PDFs), I’m not optimistic about the site’s effectiveness. It’s also not clear that
-
Weak NYT fact-check on euthanasia
With Sarah Palin inventing a mythical Obama “death panel” on Friday, the euthanasia myth is only going to spread, especially with weak-kneed coverage like this in today’s New York Times (my emphasis): Conservative critics say the legislation could limit end-of-life care and even encourage euthanasia. Moreover, some assert, it would require people to draw up
-
9/11 and birther misperceptions compared
[Update (6/30/10): Serious questions have been raised about the validity of Research 2000’s polls. The results below should thus be viewed as potentially suspect until the matter is resolved.] Update (7/18/11): Given that questions about the validity of Research 2000’s polling remain unresolved, I’ve created a new version of the chart that appears in this
-
Grassley joins Senate visual aid HOF
It was ridiculous when Senator Orrin Hatch read a quotation from Disney’s Robin Hood to oppose the Obama budget back in April: But Chuck Grassley’s disquisition on the battle between “Sir Tax-a-lot” and “the massive, fire-breathing Debt and Deficit Dragon” — complete with giant cartoon-style posters from Kinko’s — might be the most inane use
-
The statistical illiteracy of journalists (cont.)
Yet another example of the statistical illiteracy of journalists in general and sports journalists in particular — the false claim in today’s New York Times that a champion player of the card- and dice-based baseball game APBA has “a knack for rolling doubles”: The 16-year-old-Wells, a fast-talking native of Wyomissing, Pa., who has a summer
-
Pearlstein smears GOP as “political terrorists”
Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein is smearing Republicans as “political terrorists,” writing that “they’ve given up any pretense of being the loyal opposition” (via TPM): As a columnist who regularly dishes out sharp criticism, I try not to question the motives of people with whom I don’t agree. Today, I’m going to step over that
-
Pew: Republicans want more birther coverage
Another day, another disturbing birther poll. A new Pew poll finds that 79% of Americans have heard at least a little about the false claim that Barack Obama was not born in this country. Within this group, a staggering 39% of Republicans (as well as 30% of independents and 14% of Democrats) think there has