Did anyone read the Buffalo News article that all but recommended Iridology to their readers in last Sunday’s paper?

Here’s the link for those who want to read it… LINK

Interesting. just when i thought the quacks had figured out every possible way of fleecing people along they come with a new method. I had never heard of iridology until you posted this. It never ceases to amaze me how far journalists have fallen from the ideal they are supposed to strive for. I would love to see the the law changed to allow citizens to sue for journalistic malpractice. At the very least a journalist should be required to have a degree in science or engineering before thy are allowed to write on these subjects. How sad.

Whether they deserve it or not, The Buffalo News is the paper of record for Western New York. What they print matters and in the past year they have published articles on clairvoyants, psychics, a woman who communicates with mosquitos through mind-control, all without disclaimers, research, or citation of credentialed sources. It’s hard to read this stuff without a forum to respond. Many letters (albeit fairly caustic) are ignored. They did publish one about side walk snow removal though.

I actually ran across a great article recently on the subject of journalists and science, which I wrote about HERE. The situation is pretty ugly, but there are some groups trying to make it better.

Well written article Brennan. Unfortunately I think it may be difficult to change the media tendency to over sensationalize everything since money is clearly the driving force behind that and money seems to trump integrity these days. I thought it should be possible to fix the other big problem here which is untrained journalists who are completely ignorant of the scientific method, but I’m beginning t think that was a bit naive. A well trained and scientifically educated journalist would be more likely to resist doing these sorts of inaccurate or sensationalized stories that the media profits from. The media just wants a drone who will go out and do what they tell them to. They don’t actually want their journalists to think.

The Borg have invaded journalism.. resistance is futile

macgyver - 16 December 2011 02:10 PM

Interesting. just when i thought the quacks had figured out every possible way of fleecing people along they come with a new method.

Nothing new about iridology. It’s been around since at least the 19th century; it was put on a formal (sort of) pseudo-empirical basis by a certain Dr. Ignaz von Peczely, a Hungarian physician, but it has antecedents going back to the 1600’s. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/iridology

Theflyingsorcerer.

Resurrecting Phrenology is right around the corner.

macgyver - 17 December 2011 06:24 AM

They don’t actually want their journalists to think.
The Borg have invaded journalism.. resistance is futile

I believe it is purely profit driven. They write what they think will sell. They don’t question, because they don’t want to alienate the people who will read unquestionably what they find in the paper, usually the elderly that may not be computer literate, and remember when journalists actually had ethics.

One of the big problems in journalism is the absurdly low pay. Intelligent writers will find other fields to ply their trade. I graduated from journalism to technical writing. 

Another problem is journalism programs, with few exceptions, do not require critical thinking or science classes.