Got this on another list. Thought some folks on this list might be interested.

-Aram

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From: [log in to unmask]
To: Recipients of conference <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: 2 Combined Re: What's Wrong With the New York Times's Science
Date: 30 Jul 1998 12:42:28
Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]>

Reporting
To: Multiple Recipients of the Conference FASTnet <[log in to unmask]>
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Comment#1:

Albert Henderson wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> My reading of the NYT slant is that (A)the science community
> fears that bad news will chill prospects for funding and (B)
> the Times wants to keeps its sources hot. Such journalism
> is an extension of the governmental process, spinning rather
> than objective reporting.
>
As a communications researcher and a former science/technology
journalist,
I think this hits the nail on the head. There is one more thing, though
--
the reporter is really just filling a slot already set up by the
media/government/business elites. The NYT, especially, has a story it
wants to tell, and the reporters who help tell it the best get the top
jobs. This story has to do with Yankee ingenuity, living in the greatest
country of them all, and validating the social order.

A couple of years ago I analyzed NYT stories on genetics and found the
heds and graphics told one story ("gene for criminality found") while the
stories, read critically, told quite another!  I have freelanced to the
NYT and they have spun my stuff, too.

I think most reporters know all of this, but they like to think that at
least they make the effort to protect *some* of the truth, which is all
they can do without getting bounced. The suppression of information in
the
news biz is phenomenal.

Best,
Pat Radin
PhC, University of Washington School of Communications


"P. Radin" <[log in to unmask]>

Comment #2:

The Nation critiqued the work of Gina Kolata whose articles are usually
NOT
in the Tuesday Science Times and are often on the front page.

Many of us believe that biased science reporting is worse than no sicence
reporting at all, because it is propaganda nor reportage.

Much of the heavy furniture being moved these days is in biotech -- there
has been an essential blackout in the US press, for example, in regard to
the meetings of the Biosafety Working Group under the UN's Convention on
Biological Diversity which is negotiating international regulation for
genetically modified organism over the strong opposition of the US
government and the bioindustry.  The news media may not be able to make
news but they sure can "unmake" it!

Phil Bereano

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Philip L. Bereano
Professor
Department of Technical Communication
University of Washington
14 Loew Hall, Box 352195
Seattle, WA 98195-2195

ph: (206) 543-9037
fx: (206) 543-8858
e-mail:  [log in to unmask]
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