"Most economists/scientists/reporters agree that ..."

Brian Stelter in the NY Times runs a hit piece on Fox News by citing a study conducted by the and arm of the University of Maryland. The survey determines that more Fox viewers than non-viewers believe that “most economists have estimated the health care law will worsen the deficit;” and “most scientists do not agree that climate change is occurring.”

What I found interesting about this study is that it tests people’s knowledge about what economists believe with regard to Obamacare, not what the people themselves believe. If I were asked the question, I would not know the answer to what most economists believe, but I know that you can’t insure 30 million additional people at zero cost to the government. As a small business owner I also know that my health insurance premiums have risen dramatically since the bill was signed into law and even before most of its provisions have been put into effect. So I really don’t give a rip what most economists believe when I have reason and proof that tells me that Obamacare – in common with all government health programs like Medicare have exceeded their most extravagant cost projections. I may add that government economists have also been telling us that the price of food has not been rising; a claim that reminds me of the philandering husband caught in the act by his wife asking her “who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?

The study was designed to show that Fox was misinforming its viewers. On the contrary, the polling organization was misleading the people being surveyed.

The second question is also a survey question, not a question about people’s personal beliefs. But I think most people would respond to it with their own opinions on the underlying question rather than guessing about a survey of scientists. From that perspective, it’s a bit of a trick question. If you were to ask the average person: is climate change occurring, many would answer “yes” that climate is always changing. But a lot of people would view that question by assuming that the question was really “is there manmade global warming?” Here, a large proportion of people have become skeptical about this issue, having observed that the apocalyptic predictions have not come true and that the weather they have observed around them has actually become much colder that they have been used to. If they have been exposed to the Internet and to Fox News they would also have heard about the cooked books at the British climate science center in East Anglia and the intemperate rants by NASA’s James Hansen. If they people asking the question were to approach me I would answer that I assume most intelligent people know that the earth’s climate has changed over the centuries, but I seriously doubt the theory of man-made global warming. In my case, Fox News had nothing to do with it.

We can conclude from this survey that you can make survey results say anything you want them to say if you word your questions correctly.  The second thing we learn from this is that if academics, economist and scientist come up with conclusions that contradict what we are experiencing in our everyday lives, I don’t care if they agree with each other; they’re wrong.