The Goldman State
Ed Goldman is a longtime newspaper and magazine columnist, the author of five books and creator of The Goldman State, a three-times-a-week online column with subscribers in 40 states, Canada and Europe. A professional playwright, composer and painter, Ed has also taught journalism at five California Universities and community colleges. His bucket list includes becoming the victim of a corporate takeover. This podcast is an extension of his unique take on the world around us and his interpretation, with all the creativity imaginable, of what that would literally sound like if he were to speak it.
The Goldman State
Episode 92: Metrics, Schmetrics: It's Time for Bullshetrics
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00:12 - Ed Goldman (Host)
Hi, this is Ed Goldman with the Goldman State Podcast. Those of you who've furnished your home office, adu or Quonset hut with a fainting couch may need it for today's podcast, which includes a nearly profane portmanteau. The topic is my increasing disdain for our uber-reliance on analytics, metrics, physics and demographics to discover what we, as hapless consumers or employees, want or don't want. I've named these statistical, often easily debunked data bullshet tricks. If you'll recall this past fall, pollsters told us that US Vice President Kamala Harris was going to become the US President, even though it was going to be a close one. Wrong on both counts. They'd also told us eight years earlier that Hillary Clinton was going to beat Donald Trump, the same guy who beat Harris in 2024. Clinton did get more of the popular vote, but Donald J trumped in the electoral college In both instances.
01:17
We were told all sorts of details about the voters who are going to ensure Harris's and Clinton's election where we lived, how much we earned, whether we had college degrees and our favorite Ben Jerry's ice cream flavor. But, as pollsters discovered when autopsying their flops, there was also the possibility that some people didn't agree to exit interviews, submit to telephone surveys or and this was the X factor they lied. To put this in market research language, the margins or error were more like polo fields or error. Polo fields, by the way, are the largest sports venues and, for those of you not familiar with it, some of this could apply to the fabled Nielsen ratings as well. They told us that Dick Cavett, the well-read talk show host, had lousy ratings, so at least three of his shows were canceled over a period of about 15 years. The problem, as Cavett pointed out, was that viewers whose preferences Nielsen measured had volunteered for the monitoring of their TV habits, either by allowing an electronic device to be attached to their sets or by keeping a paper diary of the shows they watched. Cavett sniffed that he couldn't imagine any of his audience base participating in that sort of survey. Though that might sound like acidic grapes on Cavett's part, I think he was correct, but my only proof is anecdotal. To wit, I was one of the fans who declined Nielsen's request on three separate occasions to keep a record of my viewing. Since we're now in an era when supermarkets know all about us without their having to ask even a single question, I suppose resistance is futile. You may recall that statement being immortalized by the outer space race the Borg on Star Trek, a TV show whose consistently so-so Nielsen ratings paused its cancellation after three years. Fans were outraged and made enough noise about it that the series resurfaced, initially with the same cast, as a series of highly popular big screen, big budget movies. It even returned to television in a variety of spinoffs. Most amusing of all is that reruns of the original show have proved to be immensely popular in syndication and on streaming platforms. Even though that didn't eliminate the rating system, it definitely put Nielsen in a half Nelson. For younger viewers and those with taste, a half Nelson's a wrestling hole.
03:36
In 1954, daryl Huff wrote a wonderful book called how to Lie with Statistics, which has been reissued for decades. The secret language of statistics, so appealing in a fact-minded culture, he wrote, is employed to sensationalize, inflate, confuse and oversimplify. Statistical methods and statistical terms are necessary in reporting the mass data of social and economic trends, business conditions, opinion polls and the census. But without writers who use the words with honesty and understanding and readers who know what they mean, the result can only be semantic nonsense. Well, it's a good thing. I'm a confirmed anti-semantic. Anybody know how to stream Star Trek on my iPhone? I'm Ed Goldman. My column, the Goldman State comes out every Monday, wednesday and Friday. You can subscribe for free at GoldmanStatecom. Thanks for listening.