How many media interviews?
Based on this Washington Times article about the testimony of James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, you’d think Hansen should be the Guiness Book of Records’s “most interviewed person”:
A NASA scientist who said the Bush administration muzzled him because of his belief in global warming yesterday acknowledged to Congress that he’d done more than 1,400 on-the-job interviews [emphasis mine] in recent years.
In fact, it was hard to miss people talking about such a stunning number of media interviews, because the article was quoted over and over by bloggers, until it was simply being repeated as fact without any citation at all, as in this example from The Oxford Medievalist:
Hansen acknowledged yesterday to Congress that he’d done more than 1,400 job-related interviews in recent years.
Trouble is, if you read further down the Washington Times article, you’ll discover the actual source of the writer’s statement:
“We have over 1,400 opportunities that you’ve [Hansen] availed yourself to, and yet you call it, you know, being stifled,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican.
Granted, “opportunities” is a bit vague, but unless you can clarify what Issa was saying, you shouldn’t assume the “opportunities” were interviews.
Trouble is, this AP story did manage to clarify what Issa meant by “opportunities”:
[Issa] said a Google search had shown Hansen cited on more than 1,400 occasions over a year in interviews and appearances.
Ohhhh, citations stemming from interviews and public appearances, not individual interviews. How hard was that to get right?
Posted: March 21st, 2007 under Accuracy, Fun Stuff.