“Where facts are few, experts are many”

“Where facts are few, experts are many” means that, when a problem is not well defined with facts, seemingly everyone is an expert. “When facts are few, experts are many” has been cited in print since at least May 1996. In 1997, the saying was credited to Donald R. Gannon.
 
It’s not certain who this person is, or when he first said it. There is a Dr. Donald R. Gannon, a psychologist at the South Dakota State Human Services Center.
 
   
Google Groups: bit.listserv.quality
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.quality
From: QUALITY List Editor

Date: 1996/05/09
Subject: Productivity Improvement Center PIC
(...)
...when facts are few, experts are many….
 
Google Books
How to Create Profitable New Products:
From Mission to Market
By George Gruenwald
Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Business Books
1997
Pg. 7:
“Where facts are few, experts are many.” — DONALD R. GANNON
   
Google Groups: alt.test
Newsgroups: alt.test, alt.discuss.arts.audio-video
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Date: 1998/02/05
Subject: Yahoo - Satellite DIRECT Exclusive: DIRECTV(R) and Microsoft Part Ways
(...)
——“Where facts are few, experts are many.” - Donald R Gannon——
 
Google News Archive
7 November 2006, Record-Journal (Meriden, CT), pg. 13, col. 5:
Someone once said, “Where facts are few, experts are many.”
(Letter by Jerry Harrington, Wallingford—ed.)
 
Google Books
The 2,548 Wittiest Things Anybody Ever Said
Edited by Robert Byrne
New York, NY: Touchstone (Simon & Schuster)
2012
2,429
Where facts are few, experts are many. —Donald R. Gannon