When writing and researching articles, reporters rely on two elements.
There are the anecdotal incidents that occur. What a crime victim saw, what a politician said, the feelings of the crowd at a protest. Then there are the facts.
It takes both of those things together to make up the truth of any situation. Without the facts, someone’s words are just noise. Without the context, the facts are just numbers.
And so reporters need to know the facts are what they are supposed to be: fixed points of information that reflect the reality they are supposed to represent.
So what happens when the data bounces around the issue like a pinball?
The coronavirus pandemic is without doubt the largest public health emergency in a century. It has touched every continent and continues to blanket many countries with millions infected worldwide and more than 225,000 dead in the U.S.
It takes a big story to make a U.S. presidential race the second-most important headline in an election year, but covid-19 had done that. We have plenty of anecdotes. We have lots of facts. We also have lots of confusion.
The things people say and do and feel are allowed to be all over the place. If reporting were a math problem, they would be the variables that change from story to story. The facts we depend upon are comparable to the formulas that help us process those variables into accurate answers.
And, sometimes, that’s not happening.
Data is inconsistent. It is important to realize “inconsistent” is not the same as “wrong.” What it means is not all of the data is being reported in the same time frame or presented in the same way. Tribune-Review reporter Teghan Simonton detailed the problem on Monday’s front page.
One health department might be struggling under a larger load than another, slowing what is presented. There have been times that some states have accumulated different data than others. Allegheny County reports when covid-19 deaths occurred. Westmoreland’s deaths are just announced with no timeline.
Sometimes, lags in information or differences in reporting mean the data the state Department of Health delivers in a press conference doesn’t match the information tabulated on its website.
Neither county or the state is doing the right thing or the wrong thing. They just aren’t doing the same thing, which makes it much harder to report. They aren’t apples to oranges, but they are Granny Smiths to Red Delicious.
”It’s expected that during the middle of an infectious disease emergency, there’s going to be some discrepancies,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a Pittsburgh-based infectious disease and public health expert.
We understand that. We deal with government agencies every day. This isn’t our first information rodeo.
This, however, might be the first time the public has paid such close attention to the numbers, and inconsistency makes it all too easy for what is important to be questioned, or worse, dismissed.
Facts are not anecdotes. They have to be consistent, and the federal and state governments need to partner better with their agencies, contractors and local leaders to make sure that happens.
— The Tribune-Review
