This is a huge issue. We see this occur in all kinds of "hot button" topics in the news today. Pure science, and analysis intended to determine the truth, simply aren't practiced today, or at least not as often as appropriate.

The difficulty in overcoming this is first overcoming the bias we are forced to accept, and second to overcome the incentive that people have in proving their point is valid, despite reality.

I don't want to mention specific examples, as the point of this is gathering data. However I started thinking about all the hot button topics in the news over the last few years, and in every case I know of cases where facts were thrown out because they did not serve to prove what the "scientists" wanted to prove. We all have our own opinions, but each of us should be able to think of something if we are honest with ourselves.