ABSTRACT
Data presentations are staples of public hearings. In a typical situation, an analyst of some stripe—a government employee, an industry representative, a nongovernmental advocate, an academic expert—stands at a podium and cycles through a series of information-rich presentation slides. When controversial matters are under discussion, dueling analysts may appear and use seemingly identical slides to argue radically opposing positions. A question-and-answer period normally follows during which public officials pose questions that presenters frequently answer indirectly, electing instead to emphasize methodological limitations and computational concerns.
