Data - Two Cautionary Tales

Two Cautionary Data Tales Transcript - On The Media

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TWO CAUTIONARY DATA TALES: TRANSCRIPT

Friday, June 29, 2012

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BROOKE GLADSTONE: Both she and Texas Tribune reporter Matt Stiles believe in the power of data. They only wish it were more abundant and more relevant. But data can be dangerous, even deadly, as OTM producer Jamie York reports in these two cautionary tales. JAMIE YORK: Tale number one: There are few more obvious indicators of urban blight than fires. Burned-out buildings and empty lots announce devastation and neglect. By the 1970s, New York City announced that it was going broke – [SIRENS/TRAFFIC SOUNDS] - its residents were fleeing to the suburbs, and it was very clearly on fire. MALE CORRESPONDENT: The fire statistics for New York are staggering. New York has more fires than Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and Philadelphia put together. JAMIE YORK: Firemen called this decade and a half “the war years,” but the devastation was confined to poor neighborhoods, and most New Yorkers had no idea what was happening in their own city. MALE CORRESPONDENT: And the Yankee defense JAMIE YORK: That is, until 1977. Joe Flood is author of The Fires. [SIRENS/BASEBALL GAME HUBBUB/UP AND UNDER] JOE FLOOD: So it was the second game of the 1977 World Series - Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, Bronx, New York, about 60 million people watching at home. And before the game, a fire breaks out in an abandoned area of the Bronx. By the end of the '70s, this particular neighborhood had lost over 99 percent of its buildings to fire and abandonment. On this night, a fire broke out in what turned out to be an abandoned schoolhouse, and throughout the game, they cut to it. Famously, Howard Cosell intones to the tens of millions of people at home, there it is, ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning. It turns out he actually never said this. HOWARD COSELL: That is a live picture. And...