Often very little, as it turns out. Or, perhaps a better way to say it would be: they know a lot, but they let their political views or personal agendas interfere with that knowledge.
Have you ever wondered who these so-called 'experts' are? It doesn't matter which field you're talking about, there always seem to be 'experts' who just can't seem to get it right. Have you ever noticed how often these 'experts' are 'surprised' by economic results, or the results of a study? It seems to happen more often than not.
So, in the spirit of surprising those 'experts' again, here are a few great pieces that I wanted to pass along.
First, Townhall.com posted a blog back in March with the 'Top 10 Worst Predictions By Experts', complete with the dire prediction as well as the actual result (i.e. exactly how WRONG those 'experts' were). You've got to read the entire thing, but here are my favorites:
1. Prediction: Banning DDT will save the environment. Reality: Ignoring the science and his own staff's recommendations, William Ruckelshaus banned DDT in 1972. Since then, over 1 million people have died of malaria each year. In a handful of countries that use DDT, malaria-related deaths have dropped 75% in just two years with no adverse effects on human or animal health.
4. Prediction: The world is running out of oil. Reality: This prediction began in the 1950s, but improvements in technology have given us access to oil that was unreachable back then. Now, worldwide reserves are estimated to contain enough oil at our present consumption rate for the next 122-140 years, far greater than ever before.
5. Prediction: Second hand smoke kills thousands annually. Reality: Two studies released in the last five years (one by the British Medical Journal, and one by the American Cancer Society) have shattered that myth, but have gone almost completely unreported in the news.
9. Prediction: Banning CFCs will save the ozone layer. Reality: After the big push for ozone protection in the mid-90s, CFC concentrations have been falling ever since. Is the hole in the ozone layer smaller? Nope. In fact, the hole was bigger than ever in 2006. Should we be concerned? "NOAA actually claims the hole is really getting better, not worse. How is that possible? Well, colder than average temperatures over the Antarctic masks the improvement. Say again? Colder than average temperatures?"
10. Prediction: Polar bears are dying for lack of adequate ice floes. Reality: There are more polar bears now than 40 years ago. The total worldwide polar bear population is estimated at 20-25,000.
Seriously, check out the rest of them!
Moving on to the MSM. It seems the New York Times (the 'paper of record') has had a severe problem with misspelling names lately. Michelle Malkin posts all the glorious details here. Suffice it to say that if it's a name that has ever been in the paper, chances are good that it's been misspelled, even if it's someone (or something) famous. As of August, the Times has had 269 misspellings so far this year. That's an average of more than one mistake every day! The reasons? Reporters couldn't be bothered with checking the spelling, or their Internet sources were inaccurate. Uh-huh...
Finally, this one was all over the headlines just a few days ago. The Russians recently planted a flag on the seabed of the North Pole with a submersible. Reuters reports spread all over the world of this great accomplishment. The only problem was that the pictures that went with those reports were actually footage from the 1997 movie 'Titanic'. Did anyone in any of the major media outlets catch this obvious fact-checking oversight? Nope. It was a 13-year-old Finnish student.
So what's the moral of this particular group of stories? Be careful which 'experts' you trust, especially if they're 'surprised' a lot... ;)
There's my two cents.
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