October 2006: The NY Times: 650,000 dead in Iraq but the margin of error is between 426,000 and 793,000!

A post from October 2006

Can you believe this story?

Check the headline Iraqi Dead May Total 600,000, Study Says .

Now, read the story and see this:

"A team of American and Iraqi public health researchers has estimated that 600,000 civilians have died in violence across Iraq since the 2003 American invasion, the highest estimate ever for the toll of the war here.

The figure breaks down to about 15,000 violent deaths a month, a number that is quadruple the one for July given by Iraqi government hospitals and the morgue in Baghdad and published last month in a United Nations report in Iraq. That month was the highest for Iraqi civilian deaths since the American invasion.

But it is an estimate and not a precise count, and researchers acknowledged a margin of error that ranged from 426,369 to 793,663 deaths."

Why do they even print the story? How can any serious newspaper run this headline based on such a margin of error?

Let me write a headline: I weigh 175 pounds. However, the margin of error is between 40 and 75 pounds!

Again, how can any serious person read this newspaper?