The Accidental Statistician

There was a Telegraph article about how wrong public opinion can be and so on Twitter I made a comment about journalistic opinions and how these re also likely to be wrong which got response that this Blog addresses. The Telegraph article is here.

Here is the tweet and the response that made me feel that I needed to post something longer.

The Telegraph ‏@Telegraph3h

Quiz: A new survey shows the public knows little about key social issues such as crime and immigration. Do you? http://fw.to/mRFYhbH

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Andrew Dalby ‏@ardalby712h

@Telegraph @CllrDaisyBenson and journalists know much more

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Greg_Lance-Watkins ‏@Greg_LW2h

@ardalby71 @Telegraph @CllrDaisyBenson Journaists are commentators NOT decision makers or representatives! Private salaries NOT public purse
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8:20 AM - 10 Jul 13 (GMT) · Details

So reading Greg's bio he has some reason to be angry but he does not get the point. Public opinion is influenced by journalists. So if they have erroneous views then those views are propagated to the public and so public opinion is formed and is wrong. Politicians have always been aware of the weaknesses of public opinion and of democracy. This is why Churchill said,

"It is said that Democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

It is also the reason why many politicians feel that Education is the key. The public need to be educated to have the right opinions. Now nobody says this too loudly especially amongst the socialists as it looks like elitism. Labour have always been sceptical of experts and the professions and they are sometimes right to be. Lawyers and Doctors often use their self-regulation to protect their own interests against the interests of the public. There will always be people who exploit any system for their own benefit.

Fundamentally public opinions should be based on evidence - you would not bet on a horse if you did not know anything about its form, or even if it was going to race. The problem with bad journalism is when it does not inform. This is when journalists and particularly publications follow their own agenda rather than presenting a balanced opinion.

Most of the main stream UK press is affected by this lack of balance, often because of the political leanings and agenda's of a proprietor. You know when you buy them what some of these agendas are. The Mail and the Telegraph are fairly far to the right because that is where the Barclays and Rothermeres want them. The Guardian and Mirror are both to the left because that is what their trusts wish to present. The Times is more moderately to the right. The FT favours the financial sector and unrestrained capitalism because that is its audience. The Sun swings around at the whim of its proprietor but always in a way that will best benefit his personal interests.

So the comment is wrong for these reasons.

Journalists are not unbiased commentators they are opinionated and try to form public opinion. By doing this they seek to influence decision making.
The public are the ultimate decision makers - we decide which bunch of policies we are prepared to live with. We cannot pick one policy at a time we have to pick the package represented by a party but that is how our democracy works.
That journalists are paid by the private and not public purse is irrelevant and suggests that the author has not read the article or understood its content. There is nothing about the public paying for something or public officials. It is about the misinformed public making wrong decisions which is perfectly illustrated by the response.

This is why these shouty tweeters need to be responded to. As someone said the most dangerous people are those so ignorant that they don't know that they are ignorant.

Michael Gove is not my favourite person. For me he is set on destroying 50 years of progress in Education, but according to him I must be one of those Marxist opponents. I certainly am to the left of Gove, along with Ghenghis Khan, but I am not very keen on Marx or even unions. Anyway I don't want to present my convictions I want to present those of others who might be more credible than Gove.

An excellent book is Education a Very Short Introduction. It argues very clearly and concisely with evidence and not convictions as to why "progressive" education is the way forward. It also shows that "progressive" is at least 3000 years old and the origins on the disciplinarian drilling of "traditional" teaching.

Now Gove is trying to take us back into the traditional teaching method as this will improve standards. So lets look at what someone who studied under that method said about it.

"To me the worst thing seems to be a school principally to work with methods of fear, force and artificial authority. Such treatment destroys the sound sentiments, the sincerity and the self-confidence of pupils and produces a subservient subject."

"One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community."

"Education is what you have left after one has forgotten what one has learned in school."

The person who said this was a bit of a slouch at school and he was a late developer who did not speak until he was four. It was Albert Einstein and Gove is certainly no Einstein.

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