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FOX News-Like Distortion of the Truth or Mathematical Incompetence? I Blog, You Decide.

Think fast: what’s wrong with the pie chart titled Should we let US troops land at Shannon on route to Iraq? taken from the Irish Times, shown below?

Look closely: although the graph’s text correctly reports that 67% of the respondents said “no”, the graph’s graphics make it appear as though the “no” votes are in the minority. Pictured below is a proper rendition of the data, which took me mere seconds to do using Excel:

Not being familiar with the editorial slant of the Irish Times, I cannot say for certain whether it’s a FOX News-like selective view of the truth or mathematical illiteracy (a.k.a. innumeracy) on the part of the graphics editor. Indymedia Ireland thinks it’s the former.

Joey deVilla

View Comments

  • Having recent experience both in editing and pie-chart making, I am guessing it is moron editorial staff rather than anything sinister. Just an accident of Photoshop no one caught. I could be entirely wrong, of course.

  • I am more inclined to believe that it was a mistake, given:

    • The fact that innumeracy is very common
    • Indymedia types are often prone to conspiracy theory.
  • I couldn't tell you for sure about the slant of the Times here... but I *can* tell you that at least on the radio, the media types tend to lean very much against using Shannon. So my vote would be for "accidental screwup". Still funny though.

  • Subject : Accurate, but deceitful pie charts.
    I like your article; your chart is accurate, but deceitful. If I had done this in a science paper, my teacher/professor would have written a comment.

    1) Pie chart thickness is unnecessary unless you intend to deceive the reader; it makes the front share look larger than it is. Here, the larger share looks 3 times larger than the small one, instead of 2 times). Why don't you use a flat chart ?

    2) Shares with a bright red color (bright red here) seems much larger than shares with dull colors (light blue here). Use colors of similar intensities unless you want to deceive the reader.
    Thanks

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