Relying on advocacy groups for news

The other day a front page article in the local morning newspaper screamed that Texas children are on track to be poor, underemployed and subject to high healthcare costs. That last one, high healthcare costs, is a given no matter what else happens. But let's not get bogged down with details just yet.

The article is a retelling of a press release found here from an advocacy group called Texans Care for Children.

Let's just take one line from both the article and the press release: Here's the line from the newspaper article

Texas also ranks the highest for fatalities that result from child abuse or neglect ...

And here's the line from the press release:

The state also has the most fatalities from child abuse or neglect among states ...

Can this be fact checked? The press release leads us to the full report which says this:

In the last decade, more children in Texas than in any other state have died as a result of abuse or neglect.1

The footnote leads to this:

To access detailed source information for this section, visit txchildren.org/Report/Protection.

That's where we find this:

Sources in Child Protection
1 Every Child Matters Fund. "We Can Do Better: Child Abuse and Neglect Deaths in the U.S." (Washington D.C., 2009), http://www.everychildmatters.org/images/stories/pdf/wcdb_report.pdf

The above URL is a 404 dead end. But a search at everychildmatters.org, another advocacy group, leads us to a later report titled: SECOND EDITION We Can Do Better Child Abuse and Neglect Deaths in America. And there we find a couple of charts, one of which might seem to bear out the claim. But only two years are displayed, 2001 and 2008, with no explanation why only those two. And the number of child abuse and neglect deaths attributed to Texas is so high, 223 in the year 2008 versus 185 in California and 107 in New York that there has to have been some statistical fluke -- a higher population of children, a different reporting standard, or simply gaming the numbers.

In any event, the phrase, "more children in Texas than in any other state have died as a result of abuse or neglect" is meaningless unless the objective is simply to instill a feeling of guilt.

This journey so far has been too tiresome to continue on to footnote #2, so I'm quitting. What should we make of all of this? If you are in favor of something an advocacy group is promoting, then accept their press releases as truth. If you are against it, then you probably don't have to search very long to find out they've stretched the truth to make their case. A press release from an advocacy group should be given the same respect as a TV commercial.

Finally, I don't want to sound as if I'm criticizing the local reporter, after all, she once received this blog's recognition as hardest working local newspaper reporter, and we know she can do her stuff. So we can't really blame her for taking a break from day-to-day reporting every once in a while and relying on advocacy group press releases. Heck, I may want to issue my own press release someday -- "Sleepless in Midland completed another year of blogging -- there were no survivors."

Comments

[ospurt]

Here are the Stats from a government source (not an advocacy group) that you are seeking:

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm08/table4_1.htm

[ospurt]

You can view data by State since 1995 under the Child Abuse & Neglect Research heading on this page at the HSS website. Pick a year and go to chapter 4 of that year's reports.

Texas has been at the top of child abuse and neglect fatalities for a long time.

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/index.htm

[Geo]

I really shouldn't be critical of the newspaper. The paper arrives whether there's rain, snow, ice or sun, and I really appreciate that. Every reporter needs a break now and then, so I really shouldn't complain about a solitary recycled press release. But then it is costing $192 a year.

Ospurt, if the child abuse thing is a cause of yours you should help that advocacy group do a better job with the footnotes.

Hey, maybe they've stumbled onto a legal defense. "Yeah, I beat my kids, but government budget frugality made me do it."

[ospurt]

My concern for this issue is much like any involved citizen's should be, so I'm not an advocate.

I just have this knack for finding source documents and statistics. I agreed with your questioning of the statistics showing Texas was leading this grim category by a large margin and wanted to see if I could find the source data myself.

[Geo]

Ospurt, some would probably like to generalize and say Texans are meaner to children than people elsewhere. But I don't believe it.

There are probably differences in definitions and reporting requirements among states. And if we want to make a generalization of our own, maybe Texans are more aggressive at reporting incidents.

[ospurt]

I agree that the reporting between the states may be suspect.

I did note there were years where Texas did not lead in the rate per 100,000 children. Though, with years of data in this government survey I have to wonder why there would be a difference in reporting requirements and what purpose it would serve.

[Geo]

The reporting is probably done through state or local agencies.

In that case the only incentive for the states to conform would be the prospect of federal money coming to the state. Whether there is federal grant money involved in this issue is something I don't know.