Kerby Anderson

A wise consumer of news and information should question some of the statistics thrown out by journalists. This is especially true since an advocacy group may have provided these statistics in order to influence public opinion.

Here’s one example. Tulane University says that 41 percent of the undergraduate women have been sexually assaulted since arriving on campus. That’s an alarming statistic that seems to be contrary to common sense. If there were that many assaults, we would be hearing about what a dangerous place this college is to any woman.

When you dig into the statistics, you find that Tulane broadly defines sexual assault. We are talking about any unwanted sexual contact. The survey also included lots of people who were self-selecting themselves for the survey. Just a bit of skepticism and discernment would tell you that the 41 percent figure could not possibly be correct.

Another example has been the statistics for school shootings. Even before the tragic shooting in Florida, there were people questioning the criteria used to compile school shooting incidents. Daniel Lee, writing in the Wall Street Journal, challenged the claim that there had been eleven school shootings just in the month of January.

The only one some might remember was a shooting at a Kentucky high school. What about the other ten? If you look at the database put together by a gun control group, you see lots of incidents that don’t even qualify as a school shooting. A school bus window was broken with a pellet gun in Iowa. A gun accidentally discharged in a weapons class in a Texas community college. A veteran with PTSD shot himself in the parking lot of a closed Michigan school. No students were present.

The point is simple: Don’t trust every statistic. We need some healthy skepticism and discernment when it comes to news and information.