The Observatory
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January 06, 2009 05:22 PM
Gupta for Surgeon General
Obama asks CNN journalist, neurosurgeon to be top doc
The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz broke the story today that President-elect Barack Obama has offered the job of surgeon general to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent and a practicing neurosurgeon. Kurtz reported that Gupta has told Obama's team that he wants the job and that the final vetting process is under way. Kurtz provides...
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December 22, 2008 01:54 PM
The Year in Science Journalism
Over at the Knight Science Journalism Tracker, Charlie Petit has a fun roundup of over half a dozen publications and organizations’ lists of the best science stories, photos, and discoveries of the year. Cellular reprogramming, exoplanets, the Large Hadron Collider, and China’s race to space top most of the lists. They are all very important subjects indeed, but...
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December 22, 2008 01:36 PM
Science Groups Protest CNN Cuts
CASW, NASW, SEJ, and WFSJ issue first-ever joint letter
Four of the world’s largest science and environmental journalism groups issued their first-ever joint statement today in a letter sent to CNN protesting the network’s decision to cut its entire science team this month.
The presidents of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, the National Association of Science Writers, the Continue reading
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December 16, 2008 04:13 PM
Q&A: Andrew Revkin
NYT reporter discusses climate, sustainability, and long-haul reporting
Last month, New York Times reporter Andrew Revkin received Columbia University’s prestigious John Chancellor Award, along with New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer. A video of his acceptance speech is below. The award is given to journalists that have demonstrated excellence in the coverage of a particular beat—in Revkin’s case, climate change, and in...
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December 15, 2008 05:15 PM
Weird Science (Reporting)
CNN covers unfounded claims about new energy technology
I was on the treadmill at the gym this week when I switched to CNN and learned about a new source of power that is pollution-free and cheaper than fossil fuels. It’s made from water, “a form of salt,” and “other common materials.”
Poppy Harlow, a business correspondent for CNN, cheerily recounted the good news. She quoted the...
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December 08, 2008 01:07 PM
Video: Climate Central
A new partnership in science journalism
Climate Central, a novel and unique partnership between journalists and scientists based in Princeton, New Jersey, recently set out to improve the coverage of climate change. The goal is to "localize" the story in order to highlight the ways that global warming is impacting people's daily lives and to educate the public to make informed decisions about mitigation...
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December 08, 2008 12:00 PM
How Attention Networks Work: Transcript
Cognitive psychologist Michael Posner on the neurological bases for attention
Cognitive neuroscientist Michael Posner is an internationally recognized expert on attentional networks and cognition. CJR contributor Russ Juskalian recently talked to Posner about attention, cognition, and how media consumption affects both. This is a full transcript of their discussion.
Michael Posner: I’m Michael Posner, I’m a professor emeritus at the University of Oregon, where I’ve been since 1965. My main...
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December 08, 2008 06:30 AM
A One-Stop Shop for Climate Information?
Princeton startup attempts to pair journalists' yin with scientists' yang
When it comes to improving the coverage of climate change, critics often suggest some variant of the idea that journalists and scientists should do a better job "communicating" with each other.
Over the last few years, a fairly large number of meetings, seminars, workshops, symposia, and conferences have attempted to improve the dialogue by bringing the two groups—some would...
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December 04, 2008 06:30 AM
CNN Cuts Entire Science, Tech Team
Despite network’s intention to launch wire service, compete with the AP
CNN, the Cable News Network, announced yesterday that it will cut its entire science, technology, and environment news staff, including Miles O'Brien, its chief technology and environment correspondent, as well as six executive producers. Mediabistro's TVNewser broke the story.
“We want to integrate environmental, science and technology reporting into the general editorial structure rather than have...
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December 03, 2008 12:31 PM
The Local Climate
Regional papers invest in multi-part series on warming
Last week, the Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media posted an interesting column by Tom Henry, environment reporter for the Toledo Blade in Ohio, about being sent to Greenland to write a four-part series on global warming.
Henry’s is one of a few recent climate series by local papers that merit attention, but which I have...
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November 26, 2008 12:34 PM
Poland Climate Change Conference
Journalists from Brazil to Bangladesh hope to show what it means to the developing world
When government negotiators meet in Poland next week for a major United Nations conference on climate change, Brazilian journalist Gustavo Figueiredo Faleiros won’t be emphasizing the big question on most reporters’ minds: where do the United States and European Union stand on committing to greenhouse-gas emission limits at next year’s global climate change conference in Copenhagen?
Instead, Faleiros will examine...
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November 26, 2008 09:38 AM
Global Cooling, Confused Coverage
Politico article demonstrates gross misunderstanding of climate science, journalism
Proving that old misunderstandings are not easily resolved, Politico published an anachronistically bad article about climate science yesterday. The piece, by Erika Lovley, began by stating that:
Climate change skeptics on Capitol Hill are quietly watching a growing accumulation of global cooling science and other findings that could signal that the science behind global warming may still be...
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November 24, 2008 05:43 PM
Covering Obvious Conclusions
New York Times takes the bait on lackluster study about kids and the Internet
Several newspapers recently published articles about a new study of children and their Internet usage. The version in The New York Times, by Tamar Lewin, begins like this:
Good news for worried parents: All those hours their teenagers spend socializing on the Internet are not a bad thing, according to a new study by the MacArthur Foundation.
The...
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November 19, 2008 09:39 AM
Press Release by Science Reporting
An information officer’s defense of honest, helpful PR
Cris Russell's recent lament in CJR about reporters plugging material from press releases directly into their copy seems anything but the admission of a "dirty little secret," as she calls it. Reporters have been doing this routinely since I left the newsroom, and the fact that the public may not have been conscious of it doesn't change the...
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November 14, 2008 11:04 AM
Science Reporting by Press Release
An old problem grows worse in the digital age
A dirty little secret of journalism has always been the degree to which some reporters rely on press releases and public relations offices as sources for stories. But recent newsroom cutbacks and increased pressure to churn out online news have given publicity operations even greater prominence in science coverage.
“What is distressing to me is that the number of science...
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November 12, 2008 04:04 PM
On Genes and Cures, Separately
NYT, Newsweek find hooks for important stories
Science aficionados should have appreciated yesterday’s Science Times in The New York Times. The section always does a good job with special issues focusing on single subjects, which have, in the past, included evolution, space exploration, and healthcare.
Yesterday’s package, about genomics, was no exception. As we reported here last May, while the field of epigenetics has been...
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November 07, 2008 04:24 PM
Crystal Balls Glow Green
Press speculates (responsibly) on key Obama environment/science picks and policies
Reporters wasted no time this week in their rush to speculate about who president-elect Barack Obama will tap for key environment and science positions in his administration, and about how related policies will reflect his promise of change.
The media prognostications in this realm are no different from those about who will lead every other department and agency in Washington,...
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November 04, 2008 05:18 PM
Coal’s Curtain Call
A late spate of news as the campaigns wind down
This morning, my colleague Liz Cox Barrett posted a brief comment about Kevin Drum’s argument that the press has “ignored” the presidential candidates’ cap-and-trade plans.
Drum’s explanation is that the candidates haven’t been “attacking each other” on their plans to put mandatory limits on the carbon dioxide emissions that lead to global warming. While that is...
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November 04, 2008 12:37 PM
What Could've Been (Cap-and-Trade Edition)
Kevin Drum muses on what might have been had the media not "ignored" the candidates' cap-and-trade plans (which reporters ignored, Drum guesses, because the candidates "weren't attacking each other" on this issue). Per Drum:
Which is kinda too bad because it had all the elements of an epic battle. It really is true that Obama's version of cap-and-trade amounts...
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October 31, 2008 02:36 PM
Xunlight Shines on Palin
Blogs drill into governor’s speech at solar energy plant
On Wednesday, I had a column about a number of energy and environment reporters’ reflections on their beat’s novel significance during the presidential campaign. The conclusion was largely that, because of the economy, the energy story had returned to the back burner.
The same day, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin gave an energy speech at the plant...
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Science Picture of the Day
NASA
There are a few interesting stories coming out of the annual meeting of American Astronomical Society in Long Beach, California this week. The image above is the sharpest ever infrared portrait of the central 300-million light-years of the Milky Way, our home galaxy. The area is filled with gas, dust, and a massive black hole at the center, some 28,000 light-years form Earth. The composite image captures 600,000 stars and surprised astronomers by revealing that most of the young massive stars near the galaxy's core do not, as previously believed, exist in one of three large clusters. Science News and New Scientist have that story.
The more popular news coming out of the Long Beach meeting, however, is that according to new measurements the Milky Way is 15 percent broader, 50 percent more massive (i.e. heavier), and spinning 15 percent faster than previously thought. That puts it on par with Andromeda, which previously held title as the largest galaxy in this neck of the universe. A number of outlets are writing it up, but Seth Borenstein's article at the Associated Press wins the prize for best headline/lede: "Milky Way (the galaxy) not snack-sized anymore. Take that, Andromeda!" Borenstein also offers a nice, succinct explanation of how one goes about "weighing" a galaxy, as does Kenneth Chang in his piece for The New York Times.
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The Observatory Blogroll
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About The Observatory RSS
The Observatory critiques science, environment, and medical journalism. Our goal is to encourage clarity, accuracy, and accountability in the coverage all things technical and complex.
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Desks
Campaign Desk Politics & Policy
- Who Will Be at the Table? The docs have escaped media scrutiny—so far
- Minnesota Paper Jam The Wall Street Journal gets its facts wrong