It's descriptivism vs prescriptivism. Prescriptivist "data" is plural because it comes from the cartographical term "datum". Descriptivists say it's singular b

It's descriptivism vs prescriptivism. Prescriptivist "data" is plural because it comes from the cartographical term "datum". Descriptivists say it's singular because nobody in the 400 years has used the term in an information context while referring to the geodetic datum. This is the equivalent of the Washington Post being snobby by saying that technically a tomato turns it into a fruit salad.