The point is that, from the measurement alone, you cannot make a statement of whether the null hypothesis is true. You can only make a statement how likely the

The point is that, from the measurement alone, you cannot make a statement of whether the null hypothesis is true. You can only make a statement how likely the observed outcome was /if/ the null hypothesis is true. (edit: I realize that you mean this. I just wanted to make it clearer. The article should have said: It's a 1/1000 chance that a measured difference of this or larger magnitude occurs as a statistical fluctuation assuming the SM)