Perhaps there is a recipe for being “provocative” when you do not, after all, want to depart from the economic mainstream – despite the radical incapacities that have come to prominence in the last year – and do not want to upset powerful vested interests.
If I was trying to use Eric Morris’ “Freakonomics Blog” piece for the NYTimes, High-Speed Rail and CO2, to work the recipe out, my guess would be:
- Pick a challenge to the status quo as your target
- Pick a sexy public issue as your line of attack
- Narrow the frame to bias the case in favor of the status quo
- cherry pick information sources that are biased toward your desired conclusions
- mis-state as much of the rest of the evidence as required to bring your conclusion home
So let’s see this recipe at work as Eric Morris does a hack piece trying to argue that HSR funding is bad for CO2 emissions.
H/T to Rafeal at the California HSR Blog for bringing this piece to my attention.