Peter Warren Plays The Fool

On today’s nationally broadcast Peter Warren Show, I listened to a segment featuring a guest representing a group that is lobbying in Canada against “gay marriage”. The arguments offered nothing new. They’ve been beaten to death on both sides all over the blogosphere.
However, an incident occurred in which Warren allowed a lengthy, uninterrupted badgering of the guest by a caller. The caller had challenged the guest – he stated that with [paraphrasing] “a 60% divorce rate , how can you say gay marriage can undermine the institution?”
The guest immediately countered that 60% wasn’t accurate, that Stats Canada put the divorce rate at around 38%. The caller disputed this and challenged him to produce the “source”.
Apparently, Stats Canada isn’t a source.
The host remained silent, on the sidelines. The caller began to ridicule the guest – “You say I’m wrong, but can’t back up your figure. You admit you don’t know.”. The guest acknowledged he didn’t have an exact figure, but refused to back down, repeated that Stats Can was his source, and the exchange continued in this way, back and forth. At one point, Warren interjected authoritatively that the divorce rate was 52%. Of course, the caller did not challenge Warren to provide a source for his figure, nor did he offer one for his own. He continued at the guest – “Why should I believe you when you don’t your own figures or provide your source?”.
By the time that Warren finally moved on to the next caller, it had been firmly established by a two to one concensus that the caller and host were right, (60% is closer to 52% than it is to 38%) and the guest had been wrong – caught in an embarrassing lack of knowledge, or deliberately understating the divorce rate to support traditional marriage.
While it added nothing to the debate about gay marriage, it provided an interesting example of debating phsycology, and for a host with the experience of Peter Warren – inexplicable journalistic sloppiness. Or was it simple bias? The badgering he indulged on the part of the caller had nothing to do with establishing what the divorce rate was. It was designed to de-legitimize the guest, and by extension – his message. Truth and simple fairness no longer mattered.
Of course, the guest was right, and Peter Warren and the caller, both wrong. This article confirms that divorce rates in Canada (they do vary from region to region) are currently 37% and falling. Source: Stats Canada