Bizarre media statistics
The World Tonight just began a story like this:
Now, France’s largest ever child abuse trial has ended with five people at the centre of a vast paedophile ring being sentenced to a total of more than 100 years in prison.
Which struck me as odd, because it’s not as if those sentences are going to be served consecutively, so why present them as a sum? If that’s acceptable, then it’s also perfectly valid to begin
Now, France’s largest ever child abuse trial has ended with five people at the centre of a vast paedophile ring being sentenced to a product of more than 2.8 million years in prison.
But let’s not beat about the bush. What they really wanted to say was undoubtedly
Now, France’s largest ever child abuse trial has ended with sentences totalling 109 years, their product was 2,806,422 years, and any pair of sentences were no more than four years apart. If all sentences were handed out in whole numbers of years, how many defendants were there? If you’re having trouble then you can find the answer on our website, which also carries the rest of the day’s stories in sudoku form.
Of course, an alternative would be to report the news.
