It’s pretty frustrating when some of the most “reputable” scientific institutions in our country lead us astray…and then, when their methodology is debunked, they correct themselves…but they do so very quietly. 

Case in point: The American Medical Association published an erroneous survey in March 2006 about underage drinking claiming that girls were drinking excessively on college spring break tours.  A shocking finding…if it were true. 

The study was a non-random Internet poll of volunteers.  And of those volunteers, only about 27% had even BEEN on spring break! Nevertheless, the Associated Press jumped on it without even a question as to the validity of the methodology and proceeded to run a story on the “findings” shortly after the release of the study. 

 Fortunately, we have watchdogs out there like the American Association for Public Opinion Research and Mystery Pollster that caught this study and exposed the AMA for their deceptive findings. Though the AMA eventually modified its release, the amendments were hardly publicized and, of course, garnered MUCH less attention then the initial study.

You may be asking yourself why I’m writing about this in January of 2007, nearly one year later.I’ll tell you why: the drama goes on. 

The Columbia Journalism Review and the AP have been bickering over the AP’s role in perpetuating this bogus study on the pages of the Review.  Last month, the CJR wrote a “dart” criticizing the AP’s “delayed reaction and impaired judgment” on this study.  The latest chapter unfolds in the January/February issue in which the AP responds in a Letter to the Editor (which, unfortunately, isn’t available online) to the CJR’s criticism of how the AP handled the situation.

I’m not going to get into all of the details of the mud-slinging, but the point I want to make is that here we not only have a case of a special interest organization using dubious data to further its own agenda, but we also have an example of the AP, one of the most preeminent news wires in this country, adding fuel to the fire.

I don’t want to blame the individual reporter or bureau that issued the story because I think this is really a larger issue that I’ve seen in assorted news organizations across the country.  As budgets are cut and staffing is reduced, we - the consumers of news - are often the victims of misinformation.