Gary Schwitzer, publisher of HealthNewsReview.org, lists more than a dozen pitfalls to be avoided when writing about clinical trials and other aspects of medical research. Example: "Many stories about drugs that are still in clinical trials include some estimate or projection of when the drug ... might be available on the market. Many times, such projections are just shots in the dark."
Issues in science writing
The doomed cosmonaut hurtled toward earth in a crippled spacecraft, cursing the engineers who put him there. That gripping story from 1967 was the subject of a recent book and a National Public Radio blog entry. But how much of it was true? Natalie Wolchover reviews the evidence on Life's Little Mysteries, raising questions about whether there are different standards of proof for conventional news stories and blog entries.
The Templeton Foundation gave its $1.6 million prize Wednesday to astrophysicist Sir Martin Rees. Critics soon reacted. The prize is for "exceptional contributions to affirming life’s spiritual dimension," but one skeptic said it promotes religion "by blurring its well-demarcated border with science." More views here, here, and here. Rees speaks.
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a report on medical institutions paying for air time in local newscasts and editorial space in newspapers and their web sites — including the Post-Dispatch. Said one news director, regarding a cancer center's funding of news segments featuring its doctors: "I fail to see the conflict. Who's against curing cancer?"
Simon Singh became a martyr for free expression when the British Chiropractic Association sued him over a 2008 Guardian article. Now he's the main exhibit in support of a bill intended to reduce the threat from defamation actions. But do the reforms go far enough? Details in a blog post from the Association of British Science Writers. More here, here, and here.
Medical writer Larry Husten wanted a sneak peek at slides about a new drug-eluting stent but was told he would have to sit through an “embargoed pre-briefing” first. He complained in a blog post: “Access to the content shouldn’t depend on a willingness to submit to the spin cycle.” Related: Comment from Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog.
Why don't more journalists link to source documents when writing about science? Maybe because they're afraid of being caught wrong, Ben Goldacre writes in The Guardian's Bad Science blog. "I've detected myself using a new rule of thumb: if you don't link to primary sources, I just don't trust you." Plus, further comment from the Knight Science Journalism Tracker.
Ivan Oransky at Embargo Watch has the story of a science-oriented web site, io9.com, that suddenly found itself suspended from embargoed releases on the American Association for the Advancement of Science site, EurekAlert — and how it was finally resolved.
David Ropeik built a career in television news reporting on various threats, toxicological and otherwise.
From AdAge, a glowing profile of HowStuffWorks, a site whose mission sounds a lot like the Demand Media and Asso