Attempts to get journalists more up-to-speed with this sort of stuff are to be applauded.

But the real problem is journalists (and their audiences) who, for a lack of professional ethics, don't give a crap about which parts of their stories can/cannot be backed up quantitatively. Besides selling newspapers, not giving a crap also has the great benefit that now they don't have to learn math, or programming, or logical thinking, or any of that.