How to lie without statistics

How close can the Fair 'n' Balanced Network come to telling an out-and-out lie without moving the pivot foot? Let's look over the claims in Friday morning's top headline and how they're (ahem) supported in the story.

For the homepage headline to be true, we'd need to have some voters and a liberal stronghold, and more than one voter has to be saying that the stronghold is leaning toward Trump. (OK, we'll spot you the "towards," but we issued the stylebooks for a reason). 

Fox News Digital spoke with Detroit, Michigan, residents about the political pulse in the city as Election Day nears in the crucial swing state.

(Well, you can see how FOX TALKS TO HUMANS might not make for a compelling headline. But go on.)

"It got to be Trump for the whole city," Keandre, an east-side Detroit resident, told Fox News Digital. "They are all voting Trump."

Guess that settles it. (Voter turnout in the 2021 Detroit mayoral election was around 18%, if you're wondering how likely it is that a "resident" is also a "voter.") But perhaps we can hear from a few more of the faithful?

One resident of St. Clair Shores in Macomb County said that he thinks the support for former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is split.

"People on both sides. It’s going to be a close one," Tom said.

Trump got a bit over 53% of the vote in Macomb County (the next one over from Wayne) in 2024, if you're scoring along at home.

Two other Detroit natives who spoke to Fox News Digital supported Harris.

"All my friends that are Trumpers only think about themselves and we have to think about the world," Ron said. 

"I really like Kamala Harris because she’s got a lot more compassion. It’s not about yourself. It’s about everybody," he explained further.

"I think it's time for history to be made," Mandela said.

"I just think that it’s going to be a woman president," he added.

Sounds like Harris 2, Trump 1 so far, with Tom left on base. (How Detroit natives fit into the mix isn't explained; the one in the next room is voting with fellow cat moms on the block, but we're 2.5 miles and a long outfield throw north of Detroit.) 

... Michigan residents also weighed in on which presidential candidate they think would be a stronger leader.

Mandela admitted he thought it was Trump despite his support for Harris.

"I think Trump is [stronger] because I think that Trump is not going to let anybody run over us," he said.

When asked who was the stronger leader, Keandre said it was Harris.

In case you were at your grandmothers' funerals on the day your methods class covered question design, that's not at all the same question as "who would you vote for?" So it's interesting that these two go in opposite directions, but not necessarily meaningful. Likewise the subsequent observations about leadership from Jeff (another Detroit native) and Adrian (do we have to remind you guys again that Macomb County is still not in Detroit?)

Summary: We can't say for sure that "voters" is a lie, because there's no indication of whether we talked to them. Detroit does qualify as a "liberal stronghold," though -- OK, let's just count "native" and "resident" as the same thing -- a third of our sample comes from a county that, if you've heard of it before, you've probably heard of as the original home of Reagan Democrats. One of the Detroiters says "they are all voting Trump"; two others make that sound more than a trace optimistic. Did the pivot foot move?

The month is young, and -- it's only Friday -- this probably won't even end up the biggest lie Fox tells this week. It's a reminder, though, that Fox isn't really  interested in telling you about public opinion on its own. It's interested in showing you that the good guys are winning (or the bad guys or losing). If you're waiting for the day's employment reports to crack the top 10 stories -- same principle -- keep waiting.