# 35. Statistical manipulation - Biased Sampling - Selective bias ## 35.5. Methodology/Refinements/Sub-species ### 35.5.3. Lies of omission These occur when data is deliberately ignored because it doesn't fit the manipulator's narrative. This is one of the most rampant and deliberate forms of bias in the news media and in drug and product testing. The phenomenon is often referred to as a lie of omission, rather than a lie of commission, because it doesn't deceive, it just doesn't tell the whole truth. It is also common in propaganda, where the manipulator simply filters out bits of information that contradict their chosen message. In statistical circles, samples of data and samples of study results can be "lost"-accidentally or deliberately. When this is deliberate, it is manipulation and a type of scientific fraud. Data or test results can be deliberately lost in reports when they don't fit in with the conclusions that the manipulator wishes to convey. Everything else in a report may be totally true and provable and highly credible but we never know what was left out of the report. There are numerous documented cases of drug trials where trials are abandoned or studies shelved because they don't meet the pre-defined objectives. This is bad science of the most fraudulent kind. It is a most insidious means of manipulation because the only way it can be avoided is to re-run the tests under controlled conditions to disprove a manipulated assertion.