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Even syndicated columnists are not immune to math gaffes. For example, in a June 2003 column Michelle Malkin began: Exploiting junk science is great for re-election campaign coffers. Thus, one of Sen. Hillary Clinton's first major crusades after she took office was to whip up public health hysteria on Long Island, where some activists have blamed slightly elevated breast cancer rates on everything from pesticides to power lines to planes. "There's something going on in the environment," Sen. Clinton declared two summers ago. Long Island women, she asserted, were being "plagued" by breast cancer. Never mind that the annual breast cancer case rate in the region - 117 cases per every 100,000 women - is just a few percent higher than the national rate of about 114 per 100,000 annually. A difference of three women out of 100,000 is not "a few percent higher." In fact, it is not even one percent higher. It is just .003 of a percent higher. If Ms. Malkin had checked her math, she would have had a much stronger argument and avoided the embarrassment of having readers wonder about her math skills. Click here for the complete text of Michelle Malkin's column |
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