… I wonder how the NYT reporter picked these particular people to interview. It makes you realize how many reportorial degrees of freedom are involved in writing a story. By choosing who to interview, you can create whatever impression you want. … The uncontrolled nature of person-on-the-street interviews is one reason that we like to conduct opinion polls. CONT.
Andrew Gelman (Columbia U.), Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science