Decepción y palo a Top Secret America

Richard Posner, que sabe de qué habla, dice en The New Republic: la serie Top Secret America de The Washington Post es un fiasco periodístico. Porque malinterpreta las estadísticas y porque el reportaje tiene un enfoque descriptivo basado en anécdotas incidentales y no es analítico ("…anecdotes are not analysis and do not reveal the scope and gravity of problems…").

No sé. La serie vale la pena. El juez Posner, también. Para hacer hambre, les dejo una cata:

Merely counting the number of people, parking spaces, square feet of building space, and other countables lovingly recited in the Post‘s report conveys no useful information and will impress only naïve readers who have somehow failed to realize that the U.S. government and its major components are huge. The report conveys the impression of mindless growth in intelligence personnel, contractors, and facilities since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. […]

Several of the “wow” statistics highlighted in the report are completely meaningless. One is the number of persons—more than 850,000—who have top-secret clearances. A top-secret clearance is required for all sorts of activities that have nothing to do with intelligence, such as advanced weapons research, high-level military command, and the management of the nation’s nuclear arsenal. (A cafeteria worker in a weapons factory might require such a clearance.) […]

Sigan leyendo.