How The MSM Would Write A Scientific Article

Time and time again we see the media publish extraordinarily sloppy reporting on the matters of science and engineering. More often than not, it will paint a misleading picture of a scenario to the reader, which only causes the fallacies of the article to perpetuate themselves through the public or the internet.

This is a parody of how the MSM would write an article regarding scientific research:

This is a news website article about a scientific paper

In this paragraph I will state the main claim that the research makes, making appropriate use of "scare quotes" to ensure that it's clear that I have no opinion about this research whatsoever.

In this paragraph I will briefly (because no paragraph should be more than one line) state which existing scientific ideas this new research "challenges".

If the research is about a potential cure, or a solution to a problem, this paragraph will describe how it will raise hopes for a group of sufferers or victims.

This paragraph elaborates on the claim, adding weasel-words like "the scientists say" to shift responsibility for establishing the likely truth or accuracy of the research findings on to absolutely anybody else but me, the journalist.

www.guardian.co.uk...

(Read some of the comments also)

It is bothersome because it means the public is less informed on issues than they could be, which ultimately may cause society to take the wrong path in terms of technological advance. Often on this website I see members point out that they heard about some exiting new research that will magically solve all the worlds problems, then link to the MSM who published the article. A few months later they will come back ranting on about how research is suppressed and so on. In reality it was the fault of the original article for making misleading claims in the first place. For goodness sake, if you're going to comment on something then do not listen to the MSM, instead research it yourself or listen to a journalist who specializes in that field (something like the Scientific American), otherwise you're perpetuating mere BS. Do not blame 'TPTB' because something the MSM said didn't turn out to be true, blame the MSM.

This is where I will attempt to make some very wise and yet sarcastic reply to your thread.

I will include this bolded section to subtely imply that I had a point to make


This is where I will make some random and off topic ad-hom attack against you, the op and follow it with laughing smiles..

And this is where I will make a statement meaning absolutely nothing that apparently I feel proves my point.

BTW, I actually laughed out loud at this article and the subsequent comments. thanks for posting it.