Well, I've written Mr. Boucai a couple of times seeking a follow-up on the whole "enlisting felons" thing he did a couple years back which was then reported on by the AP. BLUF: The original data represented a combination of approved waivers and suitability reviews, however the academic paper didn't make the distinction and drew conclusions based on data which was factually incorrect. Compounding this, a think tank which supports abolishing Don't Ask, Don't Tell used the cover of this inaccurate paper to issue a call for allowing openly gay people to serve in the military. And this whole shebang was reported in many major outlets due to the reporting of the Associated Press.
However, it seems no one bothered to ask the researcher what his numbers represented until I came along, a year later, and asked.
So, I'm deep into windmill tilting territory right now. There is nothing I can accomplish with this knowledge, and I fully intend to accomplish as much nothing as I can. Since all eight of my readers are either in college or college grads (Hi mom!) if you were to find out that a paper published by a major university was factually incorrect, what would you do?
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