Mark Twain has been quoted (perhaps incorrectly) as saying that “A lie can travel halfway round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” As shown on this blog and elsewhere, the Observer really messed up in its autism coverage. It ran a front page article by Denis Campbell - giving a very misleading account of some draft research, and completely messing up its figures in order to inaccurately argue that autism prevalence has risen to 1 in 58 UK children.
The Observer still hasn’t properly apologised for most of its errors, and at least one of the falsehoods that originated in that paper appears to have spread - not just across this world - but into the virtual world of Second Life. In their account of a piece on autism and Second Life, Channel 4 claims that “New research suggests as many as one in 58 children may have autism.” No, it doesn’t. Unless you either can’t do basic stats and don’t know how to interpret research, or you believe what the Observer says without bothering to fact-check it.
Oh well. I hope that Denis Campbell and his colleagues at the Observer feel very, very proud.
UPDATE: right, have now watched the offending segment more closely. They mention the 1 in 58 figure in the video segment, too. I’ve contacted Channel 4 to ask for a correction - will see if they fix their mistakes.
7 responses so far ↓
Top Posts « WordPress.com // August 15, 2007 at 1:00 am
[...] The Observer’s bad autism science spreads to Channel 4? Now updated. Mark Twain has been quoted (perhaps incorrectly) as saying that “A lie can travel halfway round the world while […] [...]
Top English WP Blogs « KHỦNG LONG IT // August 15, 2007 at 1:13 am
[...] The Observer’s bad autism science spreads to Channel 4? Now updated. Mark Twain has been quoted (perhaps incorrectly) as saying that “A lie can travel halfway round the world while […] [...]
Top Posts Wordpress English « Ngôi nhà số // August 15, 2007 at 7:40 am
[...] The Observer’s bad autism science spreads to Channel 4? Now updated. Mark Twain has been quoted (perhaps incorrectly) as saying that “A lie can travel halfway round the world while […] [...]
Top Posts « Word of the day - Learning English online // August 15, 2007 at 7:57 am
[...] The Observer’s bad autism science spreads to Channel 4? Now updated. Mark Twain has been quoted (perhaps incorrectly) as saying that “A lie can travel halfway round the world while […] [...]
What Would Richard Dawkins think? Channel 4 continue to embarass themselves with their dodgy autism statistics « Holford Watch: Patrick Holford, nutritionism and bad science // August 24, 2007 at 1:51 pm
[...] unfortunate decision to offer him a Visiting Professor post - but I thought an update on Channel 4’s apparent use of the Observer’s dodgy autism figures would be worthwhile. Channel 4 have used the incorrect 1 in 58 figure for autism prevalence on [...]
channel 4 news // December 1, 2007 at 4:29 am
[...] The Observer’s bad autism science spreads to Channel 4? [...]
1 in 58 Have Autism Redux: I Blame The Observer « Holford Watch: Patrick Holford, nutritionism and bad science // July 21, 2008 at 8:48 am
[...] out their basic factual errors on MMR. And tries to weasel their way out of an apology, again. The Observer’s bad autism science spreads to Channel 4? Now updated. The Observer corrects one of its MMR errors - but other errors remain uncorrected The Observer - [...]
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