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Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright

Some introductory thoughts on PPIC's latest opinion piece, "California Water Myths"

by Kathryn Gray

December 11, 2009 -- No, not Tiger Woods, although as I was reading today about his lawyer's suppressing coverage of his shenanigans in British media, it did make me think about PPIC's latest product, "California Water Myths." 

Tiger Wood's handlers, operating in "closing the barn door after the horse is out" mode, apparently felt there would be some utility in preventing British News sources from laying out the most recent non-golf related activities of the world's most famous Tiger. As anyone with a computer can easily search "Tiger Woods" and find out much, much more than anyone should ever really want to know, that seems futile, and maybe even silly. 

So how do the actions of Wood's attorneys, and PPIC's "California Water Myths" ever exist in the same little section of a Venn diagram? In short, because both are examples of attempts to control and manipulate information. On one hand,Wood's attorney's try to block access to information about their client. Using another technique, PPIC tries to manage language, cherry pick information, and generally shape perceptions of water issues in California to establish that they are impartial experts on the topic, so that third party outlets, such as newspaper writers and talk show hosts, will eat out of their hands and repeat what they are spoon fed, without questions as to the validity of the underlying assumptions or the credibility of the writers. Instant Legitimacy! Just add water!

One doesn't have to get further than the last word, in the title, "Myths" to see how the game is going to be played out. In PPIC's information management strategy, "Myths" equal "Lies", and they're going to spend quite some time showing you how everything you've ever thought about California's water is plumbed wrong. This was a poor choice of wording on their part, as myths, as far back as Greek and Roman times, indeed, as far back as there was spoken language, have been used for many, many purposes;  to impart social mores, and to describe, and attempt to explain the mysteries of existence and nature. Myths have a strong basis in truth, or they would not endure.
 
But, back to the tiger. PPIC's "California Water Myths" builds 8 fairly toothless paper tigers, which they then attempt to tame with all sorts of data, not all of which passes the "p implies q" test.  Starting next Monday, this page will work through some of the PPIC's paper's larger failings.

Have a great weekend. If you have some spare time, pick up a copy of Huff's "How to Lie With Statistics" and give it a skim.  It's great for spotting when someone's trying to argue apples and oranges, or is using water data back from when Southern California was covered in orange groves to compare with the same area, now covered in housing tracts. 

And, if the weather clears, look for the Geminid meteor shower on Sunday night. Here's a line from William Blake's, "The Tyger" that might describe it , " When the stars threw down their spears, and water'd heaven with their tears."