I JUST HEARD NPR reporting on the FBI hate-crime story that Iain Murray has already debunked. Excerpt:

The hate crimes figures are a joke. Alabama regularly reports no hate crimes. The total number that the FBI reports is normally lower than absolute number of murders. Because no-one can agree on what a hate crime is, agencies vary in how they record and report them. The base number of anti-muslim incidents from 2000 was tiny — 28 — and so any increase is going to be large in percentage terms. There are still, however, only half as many anti-muslim incidents as there are anti-jewish ones. If there were more incidents this year than last overall, this was at least partly because a lot more police agencies are contributing figures this year. This makes trend comparisons impossible, and the AP was very naughty to say they increased by 17 percent.

But you’ve got to say there’s a trend or there’s no story. Scroll down for more debunking, this time directed at MADD’s latest report.