Factchecking claims that 400 churches were burned to the ground in France

Tim Harford· Host0:00

Hello, and thanks for downloading the More or Less podcast. We're the program that looks at the numbers in the news, life, and social media posts of 1990s British pop icons. I'm Tim Harford. [piano music] Sometimes a topic comes up that's so good we keep resurrecting it and sending it back out onto the airwaves. This week, that topic is religious persecution, or rather, the claims made about attacks on churches. You might recall that we covered the topic at the beginning of the year when we looked into whether something tweeted by a member of a band called Right Said Fred was right. Too long, didn't listen? Here's a potted version. Basically, an unspecified member of the Fred band, using their joint account, claimed that there had been 9,000 attacks on churches in the UK. We found that the number actually included crime recorded on the grounds of any religious establishment, that's mosques, churches, synagogues, et cetera, plus graveyards, cemeteries, church buildings, car parks. The crimes were mainly burglaries and thefts, and also included things such as drug dealing, sexual assaults, and graffiti. But it turns out that this was just one claim about church attacks among many that are percolating through the internet like the world's least appetizing cup of coffee. Lizzy McNeill did the original report and now,