Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Reporting statistics without a license

Firstly, I call shenanigans on the ESPN news services for reporting the results of an ABC News/ESPN poll by stating:
"most of those polled are ready to give Woods a mulligan, but they don't think his wife should be so forgiving. Fifty-five percent said they are ready to forgive Woods, while only 29 percent say Elin Woods should do the same. Twenty-one percent say she shouldn't forgive him, and 42 percent of those polled said it's none of their business."
Um... the 29 percent who say Elin Woods should forgive Tiger are not directly comparable to the 55 percent who say they are ready to forgive Tiger because of the little matter of 42 percent who (correctly) pointed out it's none of our damned business!  If you want to try to compare those groups, you should at least factor out the people who essentially declined to give an opinion one way or the other on each question.  Unfortunately, as usual there isn't enough information in the report to make any kind of correct comparison, and of course there's no link to the poll results.


Secondly, I call shenanigans on myself for clicking on a link to a fluff story about Tiger Woods.  I don't even follow golf.

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