Graphic didn’t reflect poll
www.patriotledger.com 6 December 2010
On page 8 of the Dec. 2 Patriot Ledger, you have a very misleading bar graph.
In your Ledger Line poll, we are told 58 percent of the respondents replied “yes” to the question about whether wind turbines make a real difference in saving energy, while 41 percent voted “no.” This is an approximate ratio of 3-to-2.
So on the accompanying bar graph, the black (yes) bar should be half again as high as the gray (no) bar; yet, the black bar is more than three times as high as the gray bar. To someone glancing at the graph, this suggests that three times as many people voted yes, rather than no.
Deceptive bar graphs of this sort are frequently used in advertising to mislead consumers. I did not expect to see this in The Ledger.
I trust this was not deliberate.
ROBERT CAMPBELL
Weymouth
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2010/12/07/graphic-didnt-reflect-poll/