WHEN POLITICAL NARRATIVES MEET FACTS: Campus sexual assault under fresh scrutiny after new survey shows lower incidence.

When President Obama announced in September his “It’s On Us” initiative to combat college sexual assault, he declared that “an estimated 1 in 5 women has been sexually assaulted in her college years.”

“One in 5,” Obama repeated, to drive home the point.

But now, in the wake of a new federal Department of Justice report showing the incidence of rape and sexual assault on campus at far lower levels and trending down over the last decade, that statistic is being called into question.

Well, that’s because it’s bogus. Which doesn’t stop Sen. Claire McCaskill, (D-Mo): “Frankly, it is irritating that anybody would be distracted by which statistics are accurate.”

Old narrative: The statistical proof of our argument is overwhelming!

New narrative: Our argument is too important to be undermined by mere statistics!