Numbers Lit! Data Literacy and Fake News Posted on: March 17, 2021 Dr. Lesley S. J. Farmer, California State University Long Beach, USA and author of the Routledge book, Fake News in Context “Wisconsin counted more votes than registered voters.” “Trump’s inaugural crowd was larger than Obama’s.” “The US has 6 million confirmed COVID-19 cases.” “The number of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has risen of the past ten years; it’s an epidemic!” Numbers are supposedly objective. After all, they are calculated by universal rules. The book Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics by Mike Nemeth says it all: numerical data can be manipulated to mislead people just as words and images can be manipulated to fool the public.