« (ayin Blogging
Main
LA County Circumcised for State Fair »
August 13, 2005
A Moment of Media Candor
Referring to Thing Progress' comprehensive database cataloguing the connections of 21 Bush administration officials to the outing of an undercover CIA agent, ABC's The Note says,
In an age when the general public would be shocked at the degree to which major news organizations are wholly dependent on interest groups for their research, this one will get some Gang of 500 bookmarking
And of course being "wholly dependent on interest groups" cuts both ways. Just as Thing Progress reflects views with which I largely agree, there are others, such as the Discovery Institute, that peddle errors and falsehood in the name of science and the media is all too ready to become dependent on them also.
The recent Reuters article on the discussion of the Kansas Board of Education to tentative approval of a "new state science standards that weaken the role evolution plays in teaching about the origin of life" is an example. The article was not researched in the normal meaning of the word. It reported the facts of the Board's decision in the context of a collage of Intelligent Design slogans and error and then gave a token rebuttal from Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education . A well-researched article would have noted that the overwhelming majority of scientists were against the teaching of Intelligent Design creationism in the science classroom. Scott, would have been quoted at greater length and fringe opinions, such as those of Jim West of the Discovery Institute, would have been omitted or relegated to the bottom of the page rather than given a place of central importance. I wrote on this the other day.
Based on his website and blog, I believe the media's use of interest group material will be a major sub-theme in Chris Mooney's forthcoming book, The Republican War on Science. Its not that the media leans left or right, rather they lean toward the loudest voice or the best PR campaign
Posted by Duane Smith at August 13, 2005 10:27 AM | Read more on Odds and Ends |
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.telecomtally.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1309