Kudos to Curtis Brainard over at The Observatory for his criticism of the media’s latest round of “overly alarming” swine flu coverage, which was driven by the recent White House report. As Brainard notes, The worst offender was perhaps USA Today. The White House report clearly states””many times, and at one point in big, capital…Continue Reading…
Flogging the mainstream media for its reporting on climate change is a daily sport of conservatives and liberals. But the stars must be weirdly aligned today, what with Planet Gore and Climate Progress both heaping praise on journalists. Even barking mad dogs know how to enjoy a good bone every now and then.
Carl Zimmer is compiling a list for science writers.
I am a huge fan of Foreign Policy magazine’s website. In addition to their terrific roster of bloggers, they put up a treasure trove of original content every day. I’m convinced they’ve hit on a successful journalistic formula. The lively mag site on the web is a different animal from the print version. The two…Continue Reading…
How pissed is Joe Romm at Grist? Plenty. Their decision to act more like a journalistic outlet than a one-note activist clearinghouse (in this instance) now makes it harder for him to make statements like this (in bold, of course): I can’t imagine why any serious journalist would cite the work of The Breakthrough Institute…Continue Reading…
Kudos to Grist for posting this rebuttal. I actually suggested such a thing yesterday on their site. Probably a coincidence. More likely they acted after seeing the dueling Huffington posts between Romm and TBI. Anyway, maybe this augurs a new chapter in Grist’s reincarnation as…a more diverse group blog. I wish they never went in…Continue Reading…
What do Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and liberal climate bloggers like Joe Romm all have in common? They are inveterate media bashers. Limbaugh has long railed against the MSM; he helped perfect the “liberal media” label into a favorite cudgel of conservatives and an effective meme. Limbaugh is also a slash & burn artist. His…Continue Reading…
I find it astonishing that J-schools out West are content to stand pat amid the newspaper industry’s collapse. How is it possible that a noted environmental journalist from one recently shuttered paper can scrounge only $3,000 for his new investigative operation? The Rocky Mountain News and Seattle Post-Intelligencer are gone. Where are the innovative partnerships…Continue Reading…
On Friday I received a remarkable press release entitled, “Vaccines and Mercury Related to Tobacco, Asbestos, and Lead?” Here’s the first graph: We are in an epidemic of chronic diseases — including Autism — that were rare decades ago, but today affect tens of millions of adults and fully one-half of our children. 1 Moreover,…Continue Reading…
I’m most hopeful about journalism’s future in the digital age when I see evidence of professional upstarts taking ownership of stories, as Pro Publica has with its continuing coverage of controversial drilling practices by the oil & gas industry. In the old print world, investigative reporters took on big projects that bore fruit with a…Continue Reading…