¶ … Americans call spaceflight 'essential,'" is a good example of the media's misuse of statistics. The title implies that most Americans feel that spaceflight is an essential program for the United States to be involved in, but what the story actually states is that "Fifty-eight percent of respondents called U.S. leadership in human spaceflight 'essential.'" (Jansen) The poll really asserts that most Americans feel that America needs to be the leader in human spaceflight, not just that spaceflight is important, like the title implies. The title could make give the impression that the United States is not the important factor in human spaceflight, but that getting humans into space is what Americans feel is important. The next article is one which proposes that the majority of New Yorkers feel glum about the economy, and is called "Poll: We're glum about economy."(Daneman) The story uses a poll conducted by the Siena College Research Institute which attempts to "put a number on an emotion- how upbeat or pessimistic New Yorkers feel about the economy…." (Daneman) However, the statistics used are very confusing with the number 75 being a break even point where negative and positive feeling balance out; and then the story goes...

This is supposed to imply that people feel pessimistic about the economy when it is a very vague poll at best. The question of a person's feelings is a very subjective assessment. Not all people assign the same numbers to the same emotions they feel so using those numbers in equations to ascertain an overall societal mood is impossible.
A political argument that is currently raging in Washington is over whether or not to raise the debt ceiling. The article entitled "Why Republicans Resist Compromise" uses a series statistical charts in an attempt to explain political behavior. The story involves an examination of those people who have voted Republican, and the percentage of those people who claim that they are conservative. One statistical chart demonstrates that the percentage of Republican voters that are self-described "conservatives" has increase from 48% in 2000, to 67% in 2010. While these numbers seem to be accurate, the assertion of the author; that this is the reason why Republicans resist compromise, is not founded in fact. The author has made a leap between conservatism and compromise, when there is no supporting evidence that conservatives are averse to…