Fox News Tricks With Graphics

[zeos3]

http://www.businessinsider.com/fox-news-charts-tricks-data-2012-11


Jeff Leek at Simply Statistics has a great post that explains how Fox News presents data in a really tricky way.

A lot of the issue comes in the way the data is presented. While most of the time the data is grounded in fact, by skewing the axes, using the wrong kind of chart, or just changing where the points should be on the graph, Fox is able to change the way that the information is interpreted.

As one example, Leek points out this pie chart. When you add up the numbers, it exceeds 100 percent, making a pie chart a poor choice.


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In this Fox News chart, the axis starts at 34%. When looked at it this way, it appears that taxes will be five times higher than they are now if the cuts expire. In reality, that isn't the case:

[msongs]

1. lies, damn lies....and statistics. I think that was mark twain nt

[LeftInTX]

2. Tricky graphics, standard tricks of propaganda.

Pretty easy to spot even with an untrained eye.

I can't figure out how anyone with a college education or critical thinking skills takes Faux seriously.

[calimary]

3. ALWAYS assume they'll distort. ALWAYS.

It's VERY good that more people are paying attention and keeping track of these things.

[chalky]

4. LOL - see my signature.

n/t

[Fearless]

6. +1

Possibly the only Fox News anchor quote that is truthful.

[TexasTowelie]

9. It is apparent that the GOP has a fixation on imaginary, irrational and complex numbers.

Real numbers (like real people) mean nothing to them.

[MrModerate]

5. I wonder if anyone in Fux News' audience . . .

Looking at the pie chart, even went so far as to say to themselves, "wait a minute, that doesn't make any sense."

I'm not taking bets.

It reminds me of a cartoon I once saw that pictured an old married couple in their living room. The husband is pointing at a framed wedding photo on the mantelpiece with a puzzled look on his face. The caption: "Hey — that isn't me!"

[SheilaT]

7. Ahh, that secon one, the bar graph.

Some years ago in a psych 101 class, the instructor put up a bar graph without the x axis (the vertical one)labelled, but with one bar twice as high as the other. "What can you conclude from this?" he asked. I raised my hand and said, "What are the numbers on the vertical axis?" He ignored me, and got the rest of the class to conclude that one value was twice as much as the other. Of course, when the x axis numbers were then given, the difference was about what this particular bar graph shows.

ALWAYS know what the numbers are, and always see if what you're being shown makes sense.

[ashling]

8. Thanks for this

I have been looking for a good source to show this to my students.

[ErikJ]

10. If they showed what the tax rate was in the 1950's the next bar would be a foot higher

[Michigan Alum]

11. I also love how any time a Rep. is involved with a scandal they always put a (D) next to their name.

Over and over again. It would be one thing if they initially did it and then corrected it, but they do it day after day while the scandal is going on.

[ck4829]

12. Can see a lot of them with Google searches

http://www.google.com/search?q=fox+news+graphs

Find the graphs that don't use axis tricks or don't have percentages that don't add up to 100%. You might be surprised (But probably not).

[zeos3]

13. HA! Thanks for the link! n/t