Comments on: The Visual Display of Stupid

By: Joel

Joel — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:04:42 +0000

As stupid as the graphic is, it’s not FNC. It’s something from the local news broadcast on WFLD Chicago, the local fox affiliate. Nice try though.

By: lol??

lol?? — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:18:53 +0000

…

Either they are truly stupid, and dont understand a pie chart, or they are making a (poor) stacking chart. For instance, someone can support BOTH Palin and Huckabee, and thus the percentages end up overlapping, and stuff like that. I’m too lazy to write out a mathematical explanation, but ya, you should get the point.

By: TW Andrews

TW Andrews — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:23:48 +0000

Someone alert Stephen Few!

By: NewsJunky

NewsJunky — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 08:47:10 +0000

HeyKieran,
Nice catch. But sorry to say, can’t blame FOX NEWS for this one, just a local FOX channel affiliate. A big difference. Try again!

By: marta-NY/NJ

marta-NY/NJ — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:41:41 +0000

I love your answers…I specially love the one that shows that the pie chart adds up to over 100%..that’s Republogic! the art of manipulation!

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:50:32 +0000

Reminds me of an old cartoon…. Dilbert: “I did the analysis using your bad assumptions. Then I applied your flawed logic and arrived at your predetermined answer. Shall I begin disillusioning the team?” Boss: “This needs a piechart.”

By: dionysus hawksby

dionysus hawksby — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:32:21 +0000

This is a terrible representation of whatever data points the fox news came up with. The graph says, “70% back Palin”. Is the part of the circle represented by Palin backers (presumably the red part) make up of 70% of it’s area? Clearly not. A pie chart is just an idiotic choice for this particular chart. A bar chart would have been much better and clearer. But what else can you expect from innumerate morons at Fox?

By: AlwaysLooking4Truth

AlwaysLooking4Truth — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:58:40 +0000

The poll numbers make since, but the pie chart?!…..Either some people don’t know how, or when, to properly use a pie chart, or they thought that it would be creative to put the numbers in a “pie form” for a visual not intending to use it as a true “pie chart” either way, a very dumb idea….. Imagine if we were to search the affiliates of the other networks (as this is an affiliate of FOX not the network FOX NEWS itself) I have no doubt we would get a buttload of this type of stuff, but then again what fun would that be for some…………

By: UncleJohn

UncleJohn — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:54:15 +0000

I predict Back Romney will by over 70% by the end of the third half of the year.

By: cc

cc — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:01:42 +0000

my guess is that FN did this intentionally, like labeling scandal ridden republicans with a “D” in the graphic. they know their viewers. now many will spend their thanksgiving talking about how 60 to 70 percent of the people support one of these three for president.

By: Newstech

Newstech — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:47:27 +0000

Three dimensions? I would have thought at least four.

By: Kenny Easwaran

Kenny Easwaran — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:22:00 +0000

mollymooly – that’s just a trick of perspective. Note that Palin and Romney’s regions meet in basically a horizontal line at the right, if not one that is slightly tilted downwards. On the other end, her region clearly has a greater angle from vertical than his. So the angle in her wedge is definitely greater than his. The fact that his seems to take up a larger fraction of the image is presumably only because the circle is tilted away from us, so Palin’s region looks smaller due to perspective. (Yes, this is a pie chart in three-dimensions.)

By: mollymooly

mollymooly — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:39:28 +0000

Why does Romney’s green 60% appear bigger than Palin’s red 70%?

I guess red doesn’t make her base look big.

By: ajay

ajay — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:28:45 +0000

you may think of it as a badly flawed and unfair pie chart, I prefer to see it as actually just an extreme version of a genuine pie chart.

I see what you did there.

…well, we could argue for ages over whether it’s a “lie” or the “truth”, but really all we’re doing is playing with Somantics.

By: James Dennis

James Dennis — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:08:53 +0000

Did they just divide the circle into three parts and then stick the favorability ratings on there without regard for the standard meaning of pie charts?