On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 10:38 AM, Judah McAuley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote:
> I didn't actually say that it agreed or disagreed with me. I said that > the report is likely to come to the conclusions that the group wants > it to have. > > If I say "I believe in X, lets make a study to look for X", chances > are good that your study will conclude that X exists. Not 100% certain > of course, but when you build the desired conclusion into the premise > of a study, it isn't really an unbiased study. > I don't disagree with this, and the concern that the research has been done in an objective manner is a valid concern to voice. But I don't necessarily believe that one can simply dismiss the findings without proving that the research itself was not done objectively. If there's a claim made that there's bias in the media (liberal or otherwise), and a study is set up to determine the validity of that claim, by your reasoning that study is doomed to failure, because they are "looking for it". But if the claim is made.. any claim really... let's say somebody claims "X"... wouldn't a study be warranted to see if "X" is true? But by your reasoning the study is flawed from the onset because they are looking for "X". I wouldn't dismiss it simply because they were looking for it. Of course they were looking for it. That was the premise for the study. I would, however, say, "I'd like to see details about the study to be sure that it was conducted in an unbiased manner in order to arrive at conclusion Y." You do leave yourself some wiggle-room by saying "Not 100% certain of course", and I agree with that (perhaps not surprising). But before we condemn the study, let's make sure we're condemning it for the proper reasons (if they exist). -- I have failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my life. I love my wife. And I wish you my kind of success. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:277068 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
