The science writers’ behavior around the origin of COVID raises the question: About what other, less immediate but more profound topics, are these professional non-skeptics obfuscating things?
Media
The decay of science mags is not going unnoticed
Woke has its fans but it takes no prisoners. Perhaps we will get rigorous science in dribs and drabs now.
Trust in news media plummets further
Thought from an old hack: When mainstream media really mattered — say in the 1970s — they told us things it would have been difficult for us to find out otherwise. Those times are gone. Anyone with an internet connection can find out all kinds of things from a variety of sources. So values like objectivity matter much less to the MSM and they readily ally with any political group that will – by various means – help keep them in business.
Will the war on objectivity in news media spread to science? Has it already?
Trust in science will deteriorate if, like many journalists today, scientists come to see objectivity as worth sacrificing in order to achieve other goals.
At City Journal: Review of book attempting to scuff out the lab leak theory re COVID-19
Wade: “The lab at Wuhan, where researchers were manipulating Covid-type viruses, received funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Could Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci, the NIH’s senior officials, have had any possible motive for suppressing their experts’ initial conclusion that the Covid virus was probably artificial?”
When progressivism hit the science journals…
Wesley J. Smith: Science isn’t about politics, opinion polls, or subjective opinions. It is supposed to be about adducing facts about the natural world and applying them. Whether to permit, outlaw, or regulate abortion isn’t a question that science can answer.
Do courts (or smart people) trust Wikipedia?
Generally, American courts have pointedly — and very advisedly — rejected any reliance on Wikipedia as a source of facts in the courtroom.
Trust the Science! files: U Washington kept quiet — knowingly — on flawed transgender study
Open season on Jesse Singal for noticing? Or … alternatively … how about this, Little Rays of Sunshine — University of Washington Chapter: Hereafter, we will reasonably assume that anything you say on the topic stands a good chance of being — in whole or in part — a falsehood. And what should we do with a fish when only some of it stinks?
The Intelligent Design Audiopaper Project
I was thinking recently, about how many audiobooks are consumed by people these days. I would guess that the main reason behind this consumption is convenience. Many people just don’t have the time, or don’t create the time, to really sit down and get their head in a book. But I understand that for many, Read More…
Remember when the lab-leak theory of COVID-19 was “just a conspiracy theory”?
Matt Ridley: We don’t say this virus definitely jumped out of a laboratory, but we do say that if there is one city in the world where a laboratory leak of a novel SARS-like virus from bats would be most likely to happen, it would be Wuhan.
Science mag goes bonkers on abortion, and related stories
At The Scientist, we are informed, “Scientists Predict “Brain Drain” From States That Ban Abortion: Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, numerous researchers have announced plans to either vacate or decline career opportunities in states where abortion is or will soon be illegal.”
At Mind Matters News: Why science news sucks — a response to a disgusted physicist
Science writers, and their readers, often seek a certainty from science that it can’t really provide. They graft it in — so, of COURSE, they find it.
It turns out that fact-checker “credibility” ratings don’t affect people’s views of news much
Researchers: Notably, the researchers also found that a majority of people rely on credible sources of information, with two-thirds completely avoiding unreliable news sites.
Science writers complain about online harassment
If the science journalists want to run a test: Just try claiming that the universe shows evidence of design. And defend yourselves against the trolls. Otherwise, cry the rest of us a river.
Breaking: Twitter accepts Musk’s Share offer buyout plan
Breitbart, as I just saw: After a two-week battle against opposition from the platform’s board members, self-declared free speech absolutist Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and currently the richest man in the world, has succeeded in his bid to buy Twitter. In a press release, the Twitter board announced that they had Read More…