Here are some improved charts first put forward by politicians, advocacy groups, and the media in 2015.

I’m not sure exactly how they picked “the most misleading charts” (is there bias in this selection?) but it is interesting that several involve a misleading y-axis. I’m not sure that I would count the last example as a misleading chart since it involves a definition issue before getting to the chart.

And what is the purpose of the original, poorly done graphics? Changing the presentation of the data provides evidence for a particular viewpoint. Change the graphic depiction of the data and another story could be told. Unfortunately, it is actions like these that tend to cast doubt on the use of data for making public arguments – the data is simply too easy to manipulate so why rely on data at all? Of course, that assumes people look closely at the chart and the data source and know what questions to ask…