Michael Savage vs The Fairness Doctrine

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:20:38 -0500, "Paul Hopfgarten" <paul@derrynh.net> said:

> Percentages mean NOTHING by themsleves......
> If my show goes from 1000 to 2000 listeners, I can claim a 100% increase...

> If your show goes from 15,000 to 18,000 listeners you have a 20% 
> increase....

But of course that was exactly the sort of claim that Bob Nelson was
making.  To describe a show's ratings as "tanking" is to make a
quantitative claim (albeit a squidgy one) about relative changes in
audience.  Such claims are questions of fact and can be settled
definitively by doing a survey of the sort that A.C. Nielsen does.

(Why, on the other hand, this would matter to anyone who isn't either
buying or selling spot time is beyond me.  Ratings don't correlate
very well with either quality[1] or factual accuracy.)

-GAWollman

[1] Unless you beg the question by defining "quality" as being
whatever it is that audience reach estimates purport to measure.