Graphs in the media

It’s hard to present data in an insightful way. I always recommend that people check out the works of the statistician (and artist!) Edward Tufte (https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/) to learn more about how to do it. Graphs can be especially problematic because of how easily they can be used to mislead – even with no intention of misleading.

So it should come as no surprise that I am rarely happy with the graphs I see in the media. But I was surprised and so happy to watch this segment on Rachel Maddow. It was just about perfect in explaining why using a single graph that has daily death rates in the entire United States is so misleading, I really suggest you watch it.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/dire-u-s-covid-19-death-rate-seen-in-graph-excluding-ny-nj-ct-88162885745

And, after that, you can watch this segment, which should depress the &*^% out of you:

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/why-trump-s-failure-to-lead-national-response-prolongs-coronavirus-crisis-88166981530

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