ArcaMax

The danger in using such statistics too frivolously is that they can be used to bolster negative stereotypes instead of knocking them down. "For every person who believes that the over-representation of blacks in the prison system is proof of the bias inherent in the system," wrote Alfred Edmond Jr., an editor-at-large at Black Enterprise magazine, "there is at least one other who believes that such disproportionate representation is proof positive that black men are more prone to crime and violence -- and worse, that most black men are guilty until proven innocent. Statistics and facts can be used to define and defend, or to demonize and destroy."

That's why veteran journalist Richard Prince highlighted the misleading Booker statistics and Edmond's essay in Journal-isms, his online column on diversity issues in news media. "Sen. Booker, please stop," Prince wrote. Most reporters aren't calling him on it, Prince wrote, although we should.

I agree. There are enough dangerous stereotypes in circulation, and more than enough suspicious about "fake news" even when the reporting is true, for us to take misleading statements lightly.

I like to think that Booker simply made an honest mistake, as many of us might in the heat of passionate argument or a high-stakes debate. Former Vice President Joe Biden, who often is called a "gaffe machine," fairly or not, apparently made a similar error in the Houston debate as he defended his own record on criminal justice issues.

"Nobody should be in jail for a nonviolent crime," Biden said. "When we were in the White House, we released 36,000 people from the federal prison system."

Shortly after that, he seemed to correct himself by saying "nobody should be in jail for a drug problem," which his spokespeople later said was what he meant to say the first time.

Good save? Probably so, based on the goodwill he has built up over time. Just as many in Donald Trump's loyal base shrug off his many gaffes -- and outright whoppers -- voters are willing to forgive what they see as small offenses as they pursue larger goals.

But if facts are going to matter in what too often feels like a "post-truth" political era, their value must be protected by all political sides.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)

(c) 2019 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.