Look at almost any story about a major national issue. What’s the first thing you see? An anecdote. The 80-year-old woman who has to decide between her medicine and her food. The “welfare cheat” who collects a check from the government while perfectly capable of working. The farmer who’s having to sell his farm to a big co-op because of government policies. Etc, etc.

To be honest, I think the deficiency is in the ability of journalists to really get the “bigger picture” behind the anecdotes. They (we) are frequently innumerate, and thus incapable of telling a compelling story with numbers, or even drawing proper inferences from the latest batch of spin statistics we get from the politicians.

Or there are darker motives I don’t want to consider.

OTOH, politicians are famous for using the anecdote to no good end. Consider Reagan’s famous welfare queen example, or the recent presidential campaign.