American writer and humorist Mark Twain was not big on statistics, lumping them in with lies and damned lies in a list of falsehoods.
And, admittedly, statistics – particularly averages or percentages – can mislead.
Consider a very small country with just two people, one of whom earns $999,999 a year and the other earning a mere $1 a year.
A statistical type could mislead by quoting the nation’s average income at $500,000, which while correct doesn’t paint an accurate picture of income distribution.
Similarly, beware of fastest-growing claims. A pathetically small business netting $1 a year, clears $2 the next year and might trumpet a 100 percent gain in profits.
Meanwhile, a company clearing $100 billion a year goes to $101 billion the next and can only claim a one percent increase.
But which company is truly experiencing more growth?
It is up to the individual consuming the statistics to make the call on their significance and be enlightened enough to dig beneath the surface.
Democrats of late don’t even bother to massage statistics to make their cases, instead just flat-out misstating facts.
The January 6 committee, already a comedic exercise in political spin under the guise of serious investigation, trotted out a star witness who immediately has come under fire for playing fast and loose with the truth.
What this witness testified to was what someone allegedly told her about Donald Trump lunging to take the wheel of his limo and demanding to be taken to the Jan. 6 demonstration.
I doubt this is physically possible considering the layout of such conveyances. I lump it in with the nonsensical report that a fellow Penn State beat writer once made about Joe Paterno allegedly leaping from his car to confront a woman who had run a stop sign on campus.
The major problem with this “news” was that Paterno was nursing a broken leg at the time and needed a lengthy period of time to exit his car – I had witnessed this on several occasions personally.
To allege that he leaped from his car was a bad start to the story and cast serious doubt on anything that followed, sort of like Trump supposedly lunging to take the wheel of the limo.
Beyond the obvious physical doubts that this occurred, there also is the matter of him being the President at the time and able simply to order the people to convey him to the demonstration if that was his desire.
Continuing on Trump and the Jan. 6 star witness, even if this underling was accurate, her testimony almost never would be allowed in any court of law because it was hearsay. One can’t testify to things described to them by another.
It makes sense since even eye witnesses often provide conflicting reports of incidents due to stress and various human frailties.
When the “eye-witness” report comes secondhand, the problems multiply.
But the Jan. 6 clowns have an even bigger problem with their star witness. Various people, including legitimate reporters from such outlets as NBC, not exactly a Trump fanboy base, are reporting that those in the presidential limo are willing to testify under oath that none of this happened.
Do not expect the Jan. 6 committee, in its search for truth, to call any of those first-hand witnesses.
The star witness that the Jan. 6 committee lynch mob was only too glad to hear also is reported to have claimed authorship of a note that another says he wrote.
Credibility? She has zero, except to a bunch of partisan hacks on another witch hunt.
Back in my days as a journalist, I told people who tried to mislead me that it irked me on two levels: 1. That they fibbed and 2. That they thought I was stupid enough to run with it.
I made it my business to expose their chicanery to the readership. I still remember a note left for me by the daylight news assistant in sports, one of those pink forms saying that a news source had called at 10 a.m. or some such time to complain about a story I’d written and left the following message: Thanks for making me look like an asshole.
The guy got a callback immediately from me, pointing out to him that he’d made himself look like an asshole by trying to play me for a sucker. I’d just made sure to expose him as a liar to a much wider audience. I also told him if he ever tried to mislead me again, he’d get more public exposure.
To his credit, as far as I know he got the message and was honest with me going forward.
I can only dream of a time when the American people become fed up with being lied to, regardless of the source, and begin to exact revenge on the liars.
Sam Ross Jr's site 