A plague of (mostly bogus) viral data

How often have you seen a story about the nation’s most stressed zip codes, as gauged by a real estate web site? Or which city's residents have the most rat complaints, according to a pest control company? Jacob Harris thinks reporters should be more skeptical of these reports and the motives of their sponsors: "The problem, though, is that these stories are not reported with the same rigor traditional journalism is … Sometimes, it’ll be true, but often it’s misleading."

January 19, 2015

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