Attaching special significance to the words of the true experts, however, is not as easy as it might seem because reporters will often distort what an expert really said. A common way of doing so is to place an innocuous quote by a credible person next to an outlandish claim, and thus make it appear that the former endorsed the latter. For example: “One source claims that one in three teenagers could be addicted to cocaine within the next five years. Says Elliot Ness, a member of the President’s commission on drug abuse, “There are no easy solutions in the drug war.’” Mr. Ness might indeed
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