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What a radical idea! Make science worthy of trust… ?

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Why it isn’t trusted today:

The Reuters/Oxford Trust in Journalism project ranked the United States last among 46 countries for public trust in media. Everyone over 40 understands why: There is no longer even a veneer of impartiality in mainstream media. The ruthless logic of the digital age (even for print media) is that if you want someone to pay upfront for your content, you must cater to their preconceptions. Thus, most of the science content the public sees is either from a source they know is biased in other coverage or is free content on social media with even less accountability. There is plenty of good science writing out there, starting with journals such as Science and Nature; the problem is the funding model, which understandably puts most quality science news coverage behind paywalls. The online “free” funding model is payment by the click, not by accuracy, and you get what you pay for.

This reflects a broader problem that has only become more evident in the COVID-19 era. When the media reduces tentative hypotheses to simplified yes/no results, people notice if the answer changes (When are masks necessary? Do I need to sterilize grocery bags? Could COVID-19 have come from a lab?). This reduction also happens for financial or political gain, and often with at least acquiescence by scientists (fame, grants, and awards are enticing). The “science is settled” trope is stretched much too far (and not just with COVID), and it costs credibility.

Warren S. Warren, “Earning the public’s trust” at Science Advances (March 9, 2022)

And even the “good” science journals featured articles falling all over themselves to pretend that the pandemic had nothing to do with gain-of-function research at the Level 4 virus lab in upcountry Wuhan, China — research that was, we are told, forbidden in the United States.

We haven’t even begun with a serious reckoning of all that happened but here is a glimmer of hope: “Quebec’s ‘Punitive’ Pandemic Response Did Not Effectively Curb COVID-19 Spread, Report Finds”

But lockdowns and curfews didn’t need to affect the spread of COVID, did they? They only needed to apprise people of the penalties for not Trusting “the Science!”, wholly irrespective of evidence.

Here are links to “We’re not your lab rats any more.” A stroll through the beginning of the collapse of the “science-driven” COVID Crazy.

Comments
as to: "The “science is settled” trope is stretched much too far (and not just with COVID), and it costs credibility." Indeed, Darwinists have been chanting the “science is settled” trope, and losing credibility, long before it was the cool 'woke' thing to do.
“It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I'd rather not consider that).” - Richard Dawkins - New York Times in 1989 https://books.google.com/books?id=sKVqpXqE0VwC&pg=PA52&lpg=PA52
bornagain77
March 15, 2022
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This is a good item related to media in general and science in specific. The so-called New Journalism of the 1970s was supposed to allow reporters to offer personal insights from within the action. But the goal was the same - objectivity. Tell what is happening without bias. That was what science was supposed to do also. Just observe, measure and report. But woke journalism has changed that and journalists decry the "old objectivity". They don't believe there are two-sides to each issue. There's only one side: "the truth" - which is their biased opinion of what everyone "should believe" about the situation. Science is doing the same thing. Results have to be filtered to meet "the need" - and scientific objectivity suffers as a result.Silver Asiatic
March 15, 2022
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Excellent article. Excellent advice. Nobody will take the advice. The author halfway misses the point of subscriptions. It's true that paid subscribers want to get something that pleases their own tastes. But the VAST majority of free material is government propaganda, so most of the subscribed material is either contrary to official propaganda or outside the subjects that propaganda deals with. Putting it another way, subscribed media doesn't CREATE lies. Only government-controlled media and government-funded scientists CREATE lies. Some subscribers want even more government propaganda, but most subscribers want RELIEF from government propaganda.polistra
March 15, 2022
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