Stats, Lies, and the NYT Magazine: Falwell U. isn't #1 in debating. Not even close.
Bruce Wilson printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Sun Mar 19, 2006 at 09:26:33 PM EST
Ed Brayton, author of Dispatches From The Culture Wars, has just written a scathing rebuttal to this weekend's New York Times Magazine treatment of the claim that Jerry Falwell's Liberty University Debating team is somehow "#1" or even better than average. Says Brayton: NOT.

Brayton's sendup is a muscular outing of the credulity mainstream media pays to claims by leaders of the Christian right. But, Brayton says the MSM "laps it up" likes "kittens". Perhaps. And, perhaps Brayton's a gentleman - I'll be blunt. The NYT Magazine has been gobbling up something less savory than milk or cream. Here's their claim:

The most interesting thing about modern Lynchburg is that Liberty consistently produces one of the nation's great collegiate debate programs.
[ NYT Magazine quote continued ] This season Liberty is closing in on an unprecedented sweep -- first place in the rankings in all three national college debate groups: the American Debate Association, the Cross Examination Debate Association and the National Debate Tournament.

Two men are responsible for this improbable success. One is Liberty's founder, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who has spared no effort to make his school into a national debate power. The other is the team's head coach, Brett O'Donnell.

That sounds all authoritative-like, y'know ? Like revealed truth. [ per the Grey Lady's stupendous reputation for great reporting on, say, the presence of WMD's in Iraq ? ]    

Says Brayton:

"Liberty University gets to be #1 ranked by sending lots and lots of novices and JV debaters to smaller regional tournaments, piling up points. But their varsity team is slightly above average at very best. No varsity team from Liberty has finished with a winning record at the National Debate Tournament (NDT) in the last 8 years....

When weighted for quality, matched against the top winning teams, Liberty's top team is ranked 111th with a 3-6 record against the top 25. In matchups against teams that "clear" at tournaments - meaning teams that qualify for the elimination rounds at tournaments - Liberty doesn't rank at all and is below 26% in wins against them. And when you actually do adjust for quality of competition, where does the Liberty team rank? How about 117th.

Despite this, they're all over the media claiming to be the best debate team in the country, "higher ranked than Harvard", and the media is lapping it up like a hungry kitten. [emphasis mine]

In short, Liberty University's approach resembles a common approach of many leaders on the Christian right : game the system.

If you want some historical background on how the Christian right games politics to the detriment of the Democratic process, here are two great examples:

How Southern Baptists Have Changed:
Dr. Bruce Prescott - one of the world's top authorities on the subject - writes details the Christian right's takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Taking over The GOP: Eyewitness to the event, Joan Bokaer details how Christian right theocratic insurgents have largely over the GOP and vanquished the the secular faction of the Republican Party.

The point of both these personal narratives, deeply felt, is something like this : the strategic thrust of those who have engineered the rise of the Christian right in modern America has little to nothing to do with concern for truth or the spirit of Democracy. It is mainly about the acquisition of power.

Truth is elsewhere.




Display:
...to put it in March Madness terms that anyone can understand:

What Liberty University is doing is the rough equivalent of an NCAA program claiming they have the #1 basketball program in the country--based on the performance of their junior-varsity Division III team (which, against other Division III teams, they are doing quite well).

Meanwhile, in the stats that people actually look at (Division I, like what they televise on ESPN and sports bars are crowded for and people have their office pools for the Final Four based on), they're having to enter the NIT tournament with their senior varsity team to have a chance at getting in the Final Four and are still having their hineys handed to them by Gonzaga :3

(Okay.  I'm from Kentucky, where the three largest religions in the state are College Basketball, Southern Baptists, and (depending on where you are in the state) either Catholicism or various flavours of pentecostalism. :3  Of course I'm going to use a basketball metaphor :3)

Hopefully this gives you an idea of the level of fudging that Liberty U is doing with their stats.  (For those who aren't familiar with the whole Division I/Division II/Division III thing, quickie guide is at Wikipedia.  Basically think "JV" versus full varsity.)

It'd be similar to, say, U of L or UK claiming they had the best basketball program in the US by combining their men's and women's Div I stats and the JV division stats too.  (As it is, U of L didn't even make it to March Madness this year--first time in, oh gods, DECADES this has happened--thanks to a team literally chock full of freshmen, and UK got knocked out of the tourney (which they made it in by the very skin of their teeth) by UConn yesterday.)

What is probably much more accurate to say is that Liberty University is a decent JV team (which has far less rigorous standards), but in actual tourney competition they still get their hineys handed to them by the real champions of debate.

by dogemperor on Mon Mar 20, 2006 at 10:15:32 AM EST


Maybe it wasn't de-bating that Master Falwell's boys are number one at.  Yeah, I know, potty humor but if any group in this world are wankers, then these qualify.  The NYT bunch?  They're gullible suckers obviously.

by nofundy on Tue Mar 21, 2006 at 11:59:55 AM EST
The US press - beyond the days of yellow journalism  - used to be a somewhat skeptical lot. What happened ? Why is the NYT so willing now to gobble up this sort of offal ?

by Bruce Wilson on Wed Mar 29, 2006 at 10:28:51 PM EST
Parent



WWW Talk To Action


Cognitive Dissonance & Dominionism Denial
There is new research on why people are averse to hearing or learning about the views of ideological opponents. Based on evaluation of five......
By Frederick Clarkson (374 comments)
Will the Air Force Do Anything To Rein In Its Dynamic Duo of Gay-Bashing, Misogynistic Bloggers?
"I always get nervous when I see female pastors/chaplains. Here is why everyone should as well: "First, women are not called to be pastors,......
By Chris Rodda (199 comments)
The Legacy of Big Oil
The media is ablaze with the upcoming publication of David Grann's book, Killers of the Flower Moon. The shocking non fiction account of the......
By wilkyjr (111 comments)
Gimme That Old Time Dominionism Denial
Over the years, I have written a great deal here and in other venues about the explicitly theocratic movement called dominionism -- which has......
By Frederick Clarkson (101 comments)
History Advisor to Members of Congress Completely Twists Jefferson's Words to Support Muslim Ban
Pseudo-historian David Barton, best known for his misquoting of our country's founders to promote the notion that America was founded as a Christian nation,......
By Chris Rodda (113 comments)
"Christian Fighter Pilot" Calls First Lesbian Air Force Academy Commandant a Liar
In a new post on his "Christian Fighter Pilot" blog titled "BGen Kristin Goodwin and the USAFA Honor Code," Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan......
By Chris Rodda (144 comments)
Catholic Right Leader Unapologetic about Call for 'Death to Liberal Professors' -- UPDATED
Today, Donald Trump appointed C-FAM Executive Vice President Lisa Correnti to the US Delegation To UN Commission On Status Of Women. (C-FAM is a......
By Frederick Clarkson (126 comments)
Controlling Information
     Yesterday I listened to Russ Limbaugh.  Rush advised listeners it would be best that they not listen to CNN,MSNBC, ABC, CBS and......
By wilkyjr (118 comments)
Is Bannon Fifth-Columning the Pope?
In December 2016 I wrote about how White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who likes to flash his Catholic credentials when it comes to......
By Frank Cocozzelli (251 comments)
Ross Douthat's Hackery on the Seemingly Incongruous Alliance of Bannon & Burke
Conservative Catholic writer Ross Douthat has dissembled again. This time, in a February 15, 2017 New York Times op-ed titled The Trump Era's Catholic......
By Frank Cocozzelli (64 comments)
`So-Called Patriots' Attack The Rule Of Law
Every so often, right-wing commentator Pat Buchanan lurches out of the far-right fever swamp where he has resided for the past 50 years to......
By Rob Boston (161 comments)
Bad Faith from Focus on the Family
Here is one from the archives, Feb 12, 2011, that serves as a reminder of how deeply disingenuous people can be. Appeals to seek......
By Frederick Clarkson (177 comments)
The Legacy of George Wallace
"One need not accept any of those views to agree that they had appealed to real concerns of real people, not to mindless, unreasoning......
By wilkyjr (70 comments)
Betsy DeVos's Mudsill View of Public Education
My Talk to Action colleague Rachel Tabachnick has been doing yeoman's work in explaining Betsy DeVos's long-term strategy for decimating universal public education. If......
By Frank Cocozzelli (80 comments)
Prince and DeVos Families at Intersection of Radical Free Market Privatizers and Religious Right
This post from 2011 surfaces important information about President-Elect Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. -- FC Erik Prince, Brother of Betsy......
By Rachel Tabachnick (218 comments)

Respect for Others? or Political Correctness?
The term "political correctness" as used by Conservatives and Republicans has often puzzled me: what exactly do they mean by it? After reading Chip Berlin's piece here-- http://www.talk2action.org/story/2016/7/21/04356/9417 I thought about what he explained......
MTOLincoln (253 comments)
Fear
What I'm feeling now is fear.  I swear that it seems my nightmares are coming true with this new "president".  I'm also frustrated because so many people are not connecting all the dots! I've......
ArchaeoBob (107 comments)
"America - love it or LEAVE!"
I've been hearing that and similar sentiments fairly frequently in the last few days - far FAR more often than ever before.  Hearing about "consequences for burning the flag (actions) from Trump is chilling!......
ArchaeoBob (211 comments)
"Faked!" Meme
Keep your eyes and ears open for a possible move to try to discredit the people openly opposing Trump and the bigots, especially people who have experienced terrorism from the "Right"  (Christian Terrorism is......
ArchaeoBob (165 comments)
More aggressive proselytizing
My wife told me today of an experience she had this last week, where she was proselytized by a McDonald's employee while in the store. ......
ArchaeoBob (163 comments)
See if you recognize names on this list
This comes from the local newspaper, which was conservative before and took a hard right turn after it was sold. Hint: Sarah Palin's name is on it!  (It's also connected to Trump.) ......
ArchaeoBob (169 comments)
Unions: A Labor Day Discussion
This is a revision of an article which I posted on my personal board and also on Dailykos. I had an interesting discussion on a discussion board concerning Unions. I tried to piece it......
Xulon (180 comments)
Extremely obnoxious protesters at WitchsFest NYC: connected to NAR?
In July of this year, some extremely loud, obnoxious Christian-identified protesters showed up at WitchsFest, an annual Pagan street fair here in NYC.  Here's an account of the protest by Pagan writer Heather Greene......
Diane Vera (130 comments)
Capitalism and the Attack on the Imago Dei
I joined this site today, having been linked here by Crooksandliars' Blog Roundup. I thought I'd put up something I put up previously on my Wordpress blog and also at the DailyKos. As will......
Xulon (331 comments)
History of attitudes towards poverty and the churches.
Jesus is said to have stated that "The Poor will always be with you" and some Christians have used that to refuse to try to help the poor, because "they will always be with......
ArchaeoBob (148 comments)
Alternate economy medical treatment
Dogemperor wrote several times about the alternate economy structure that dominionists have built.  Well, it's actually made the news.  Pretty good article, although it doesn't get into how bad people could be (have been)......
ArchaeoBob (90 comments)
Evidence violence is more common than believed
Think I've been making things up about experiencing Christian Terrorism or exaggerating, or that it was an isolated incident?  I suggest you read this article (linked below in body), which is about our great......
ArchaeoBob (214 comments)

More Diaries...




All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Comments, posts, stories, and all other content are owned by the authors. Everything else © 2005 Talk to Action, LLC.