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We know that domestic violence is a serious public health issue and that the statistics are shocking. For women aged 19-44, domestic violence is the leading cause of morbidity, greater than cancer, war, and motor vehicle accidents.
The statistics are shocking. In fact, they're scandalous because it seems that they can't possibly be true. That is, however, because they aren't true. This so-called fact about a very serious and distressing issue has been repeated and amplified around the nations media again and again. Why? You would have thought that some would check it, wouldn't you, especially before repeating on a national news programme? No.
I was made aware of this by the splendid BBC Radio 4 programme More of Less - a show which almost by itself justifies the licence fee. It is an admirable show because it is primarily interested in the truth and, as such, is a very fine piece of work. It's not trying to be eye-catching (or ear-catching), clever or sensational. It's honest fact-checking.
It's worth pondering why we lie, why our journalists lie - or fail to check their facts - and why our politicians lie, or fail to speak the truth. When we lie, we're being idolators. We're interested in someone else's opinion more than God's. We want people to like us - so we embellish our stories. We want people to agree with us, so we inflate our statistics. We want people to keep watching our TV shows - so we cherry-pick to the extent that a crop of numbers no longer represents the field of data. We all do it. We repeat this statistics, exaggerate our stories and fail to check the facts be recycling the inaccuracies of others. If we all told the truth 29% more often, the economy would grow by 6.9%. Surely?
3 comments:
I know that I have a problem with lying. I catch myself exagerating things and over embelishing stories. I worry about what people will think of me so I lie. I know that someone will be disappointed with my progress at work so I tell them it's nearly done.
It's alarming how easy it is to do and how frequently I do it.
Thanks for prompting me on this.
I am shocked to read that - are we to infer this was a blatant and deliberate untruth or a case of 'massaging the figures'? Either way it's a helpful reminder to check that which we read.
As I always tell my History students in coursework - 'it's a newspaper report, so it may be exaggerated to sell copies". And as Homer Simpson once stated, "Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything. 14% of people know that".
PS Pete Matthew has promised to introduce me to you if I make it to Revive. For a finders' fee...
May also be worth looking at Flat Earth News by Nick Davies. One question would be whether media propagandising with mutant factoids of dubious provenance is so corrupting that we need to rethink the manner in which we engage with politics and current affairs. i.e. is the media good for me? How does it change the way I argue, the way I look at the world? How can I engage with current affairs in a better way (should I engage at all - presumably, but with caveats)?
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