7/2017
Somebody or other does statistics on who is trustworthy and what rank of trustworthiness a particular person has. At issue is the 2015 Brian Williams scandal. It seems that before he was canned, he was ranked as the 18th most trustworthy person in the US, by this group that does these things. After he got fired for lying to his audience (however small ABC’s audience is), his trustworthiness dropped him to a level of 870th most trustworthy person in the US.
At the time of this writing, the current #1 most trustworthy person in the US is Tom Hanks.
Let’s think about this for a minute. As of 2013, the population of the US was 316,130,000. According to this group’s trustworthiness statistics, Brian Williams ranks 870th of 361, 130,000. So, who are the 316, 129,130 who are less trustworthy than a lying, self sensationalizing talking head? You do realize that today’s news reporters are called talking heads because all that they are allowed to do is read a script from a teleprompter that has been approved by the editorial staff of the organization they work for, don’t you? Not to defend old Brian, but I wonder if his numbers reflect his or the editorial staff’s performance?
OK then, let’s look at the numbers another way. After Brian Williams was fired and slumped to the 870th place, he was still in the 99.9999975th percentile. What is a percentile? It means that Brian Williams is considered more trustworthy than 99.9999975 percent of the US population.
Let’s just consider the concept of this group that ranks Tom Hanks as the most trustworthy person in the US. Tom Hanks is an actor.
That means that he lies for a living.
Tom Hanks is an actor and very little is known about his private life.
That means he hides the truth.
Best I can get is a 78th percentile in my patient satisfaction scores. Maybe I should learn something from Brian Williams and Tom Hanks.
Your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave pondering life’s little mysteries.
Weary.