In Policy Analysis, Just the Facts, Please

By James A. Thomson

James Thomson is president and chief executive officer of the RAND Corporation. A longer version of this commentary appeared in The Hill on March 8, 2006.

PHOTO: DIANE BALDWIN

In the 1950s, the phrase “just the facts, ma’am” became part of the American vocabulary because it was repeated so often by the fictional Sgt. Joe Friday on the hit TV show Dragnet.

Friday (played by Jack Webb) was a Los Angeles Police Department detective, and he uttered his famous phrase during his questioning of potential witnesses in investigations. His goal was to separate fact from opinion and conjecture so that he could get the information he needed to come up with an objective analysis to help solve a crime.

Yet as increasingly partisan and polarized debates rage across the United States today — pitting conservatives against liberals, Democrats against Republicans, and people from various groups against one another — the plain and simple facts are getting lost in a sea of opinion flooding the media and cyberspace. Each side claims its own “facts” — as if shouting the loudest, coming up with the cleverest argument, or spending the most on TV ads could decide which “facts” are correct.

As the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York once said, “We are each entitled to our own opinion, but no one is entitled to his own facts.” Facts are facts and are not based on who utters them or the views of the audience.

Unfortunately, opinion-based battles rather than fact-based battles have become the rule rather than the exception in debates about some of the most crucial issues of our times — ranging from Iraq to the economy to health care.

Too often, instead of searching for the facts and then using them to reach conclusions about what actions to take, opposing sides reach conclusions first and then look for “facts” later to back them up. This turns the concept of analysis on its head. It leads to polarization and confrontation, rather than accommodation and compromise.

The RAND Corporation is in the business of providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world. We gather the facts, figure out what they mean, and then make recommendations about what actions are needed to reach the desired goal.

We seek to determine what the consequences of particular actions are likely to be so that governments and businesses don’t waste huge sums of money and years of effort to implement ineffective solutions. Making effectiveness the key driver of the decisionmaking process makes sense because it helps policymakers and business executives understand which actions will best achieve various goals and get results. This is a standard that is both measurable and practical.

Over its nearly 60 years in business, RAND has been described as right wing, left wing, Democratic leaning, Republican leaning, and both pro– and anti– just about every group and cause you can name. We’re actually none of the above. We’re pro-facts.

Opinions belong in public debate. They are at the heart of our political system. We elect our leaders because of their opinions and values, and we expect them to exercise good judgment. But before an intelligent debate can begin, we need to know what we are debating, and that requires objective facts.

This is why some of the best advice about how to start solving the most pressing problems of the 21st century was given back in the 1950s by Sgt. Friday: “Just the facts, ma’am.”