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Here’s one that shows how PR types find ways to recycle old info as new.

The University of Michigan’s PR machine sent out a news release today citying a “new study” from its Institute for Social Research that reportedly shows some 65% of the public (two-thirds) believe that state governments should pass laws banning driving and cell phone use. Only 29 percent said they did not want such a law.

That’s pretty interesting and timely, given the spate of cell phone bans in the news in recent weeks. Right?

Wrong. Turns out the findings come from telephone interviews conducted March 3-10 2005 among a sample of 849 American adults.

I was convinced that 2005 was a typo. It wasn’t.

This “new study” touted in the news release was done 14 months ago. I called and a spokeswoman explained that the institute just got around to printing the “full report.”

Which makes it so old that it’s basically meaningless.

Just what have those social scientis been doing all year that it takes them 14 months to print their findings?

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 25th, 2006 at 12:31 pm and is filed under Mobile lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.