Pondiscio: When most Americans lack the reading skills to judge competing claims in critical debates, they are at the mercy of others.

By Robert Pondiscio

This story first appeared at The 74 , a nonprofit news site covering education. Sign up for free newsletters from The 74 to get more like this in your inbox.

“Don’t take Tylenol,” President Donald Trump urged pregnant women in a packed White House press briefing Sept. 22, claiming a link between acetaminophen use and autism . Within hours, experts pushed back. One Reuters headline put it bluntly: “Trump links autism to Tylenol and vaccines, claims not backed by science.”

Who should we believe?

A friend of mine, a young mother, vented her frustration on Facebook. “In today’s day and age it’s not hard to spend a bit of time

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