“Curmudge, I see that you are reading the editorial and opinion pages of the newspaper.”
“It takes less time, Jaded Julie. The regular news pages contain a lot of useless stuff like the latest indiscretions of professional athletes and entertainers, and they often omit information that is truly important. In addition, the ‘news’ sometimes contains ‘spin’ that is hard to detect.”
“Okay, so what’s wrong with spin in the news?”
“If you see the ‘spun’ information again and again, you might eventually believe it. Ultimately, it may become an urban legend (the Brits call it an urban myth) in which you acquire unquestioning faith.”
“That doesn’t sound good, Curmudge, especially if the info is wrong or at least uncertain. So why should this subject be of interest to people working in health care?”
“Virtually no one that I know in health care has time to read the news critically. Perhaps we can provide some guidance to help them avoid getting hoodwinked by what they read. We’ll also give a refresher on the ethics of ‘speaking with data.’”
“How can we do that, Old Guy?”
“In our next few conversations we’ll suggest some cautionary signals that will alert the reader to possible spin. Things like confusion over cause-and-effect and the possible impact of vested interest in reported information. We’ll also mention some less familiar, but in-the-news, topics like mathematical models and peer-reviewed research publications. One story will be a parable, and another will be a play starring you as a tired-out Italian nurse, Spossate Infermiera.”
“Wow! I can hardly wait. But I’ll bet there are some people out there who are so set in their beliefs that they will consider your ideas to be just the ranting of an old man.”
“That’s okay, Julie. My age is my license to rant.”
“I presume that every one of our conversations will have a lesson. Can we add a short lesson to end your tirade for today?”
“Sure, Jaded Julie. Here it is: When a writer quotes a politician who is talking about science, put on your skeptic’s hat.”
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