A headline in today’s Washington Post is “Fewer Americans think Obama has advanced race relations, poll shows.” My statistics students know what I have to say about that: “fewer than what?” Yes, headlines are generally false, and the Post reports the statistics somewhat more carefully in the article. “On the eve of President Obama’s inauguration a year ago, nearly six in 10 Americans said his presidency would advance cross-racial ties. Now, about four in 10 say it has done so.”

According to the actual poll results, a year ago, 60 percent of Americans answered “help” to the question “Do you think Obama’s presidency will do more to (help) or more to (hurt) race relations in this country, or not make much of a difference?” Last week, 40 percent of Americans answered “help” TO A DIFFERENT QUESTION: “Do you think Obama’s presidency has done more to (help) or more to (hurt) race relations in this country, or has it not made much of a difference?”

Big deal. Not a story. Fewer Americans today also think they have died than thought last year that they would die.