Several blogs today are talking about a familiar subject: Science journalists who rely too much on press releases to guide their reporting. Ivan Oransky's Embargo Watch looks at a curious pair of studies two weeks apart in the same journal, one with a press release and one without. Guess which got covered? Gary Schwitzer comments further.
Issues in science writing
Can a scientific organization demand coverage in return for admitting writers to its meetings without charge? That was the issue for a freelancer who wanted to attend the American Cetacean Society's annual meeting in Monterey, Calif. Curtis Brainard of the Columbia Journalism Review writes this about the controversy.