CNN misses the mark on binge drinking story
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 03/26/2007
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Leave it to CNN in to make a joke out of its own news coverage.
During Spring Break, the news network featured an Online story on a report released March 15 on college binge drinking. The story was supposed to expose a shocking truth about campus life, and was accompanied by a poll:
"Do you believe the United States can retain its status as world leader in higher education when almost half of its college-age students are falling down drunk or stoned?"
The question is so loaded it isn't even relevant.
The report is based on a telephone survey of just 2,000 students and a survey of 400 college administrators. It suggests that the percentage of college students who binge drink hasn't changed that much since 1993. But the intensity of it has increased, meaning that those who drink do so more often and in greater quantities. The report also suggests that the abuse of prescription drugs has also increased.
Although this data raises some serious questions, it seems that CNN has missed the point.
Did CNN report on why college students drink more and more often? No. Did the network investigate into why the abuse of prescription drugs has increased? No. Instead, the network formed a completely shallow diagnosis of the problem, rearranged the wording to make it into a question, and presented viewers with a blatantly one-sided excuse for an opinion poll.
For one thing, the survey is much too small in scope to give any validation to the broad conclusion that half of the country's college-aged students have a binge drinking problem. And the fact that CNN has translated the reported increase in drinking behavior into students falling all over themselves drunk is completely laughable.
It's very sad that one of the nation's top news providers displays such low quality, sensationalist reporting.
In any case, should we really trust a network that appears to think the fact that college students drink heavily is big news?