The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters

by Thomas M. Nichols

A beleaguered Veterans Administration—not exactly the most popular bureaucracy in America—tried in vain to note that according to a sizable 2012 study, suicides among veterans really hadn’t changed all that much since 1999. The New York Times duly reported on this study with a headline that read “As Suicides Rise in U.S., Veterans Are Less of Total.” The Washington Post headline implied an opposite conclusion: “VA Study Finds More Veterans Committing Suicide.” Both of these headlines, amazingly, were about the same study, and both, in a strictly factual sense, were true. The media, or at least some outlets, interviewed the scientist who wrote the study, but his answers made no difference to the narrative.