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Old 08-08-2008, 11:21 AM   #88
BigV
Goon Squad Leader
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Seattle
Posts: 27,063
Here's something else I don't know:

When the weatherman makes a prediction about the rain or the temperature, and it turns out to be wrong, we say the weatherman was wrong. He loses some credibility as a forecaster because of this failing.

When I make a bet on the baseball game, and I'm wrong, I have to pay up for my wrong guess. I lose.

When someone makes an estimate or a forecast and subsequently the facts turn out to be different, we say the forecast(er) was wrong.

Except in one case.

I frequently hear on the news that a company XYZ Widgets, Inc, has "missed forecasters' projections". The company is usually punished for this "failure". Why is this a special exemption from what seems to be the normal case where the *forecast* is revealed to be wrong. How is it that the facts are "wrong" in cases like this?

tia
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