It does in my experience, I work for a gov public safety agency and the numbers they show you are one part of the story. In public policy we learned how you det

It does in my experience, I work for a gov public safety agency and the numbers they show you are one part of the story. In public policy we learned how you determine what the thresholds are (When does good become excellent?), as well as things like what does improvement mean (a ten percent decrease in raw number? ten percent decrease from last years average?) mean that the framing of metrics must always be examined. Not to mention the litany of inside baseball stuff regarding how various things like 911 calls, car crashes, crimes, and population figures are captured, analyzed, and understood. Outside of numbers. The same logic applies to fact checking sites which is why I always question why so many people use them to refute arguements. The authors decided what was deemed a good source. A dirty secret I’ve noticed of the most controversial issues at the end of the day can be argued successfully both ways, so the fact checkers effectively choose the side they agree with. For example, should Texas be demonized for removing their mask mandates? Lot of areas in Texas are very remote. Texas is more insular of a state than say New Jersey. Federalism and US legal history typically affords states the latitude to make decisions for themselves based on their populations desires. To what extent does interstate commerce (flying out of Texas for example) justify outside/Federal force to upend Texas sovereignty? Lot of people try to argue Texas is just wrong but it’s deeper than that.