Let's you and him fight
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It's been a while since I complained about the way that some journalists use real people as if they were hand puppets. (See here, here, here and here for a sample, from the good old days before bashing the Main Stream Media became one of the favorite rhetorical strategies of dishonest people.)
So it's a pleasure to link to this elegant rant by Jerry Coyne, "Ken Miller can’t win? P.Z. and me gets pwned". The offending journalist, one David Sharfenberg, published the offending piece in the Boston Phoenix, which is not exactly the New York Times or the Washington Post. But the theory is the same, however main the stream.
fev said,
March 6, 2010 @ 10:23 pm
Having read Dr. Myers' rant on the same story, I think your (and their) conclusion is spot on. Which is embarrassing.
Lance said,
March 7, 2010 @ 2:00 am
What Coyne says about the way he's misrepresented is a terrific criticism of the Boston Phoenix (about which saying "it's not exactly the New York Times" is an understatement).
But I'm a little disappointed that, after paragraphs of talking about the way in which he's been misquoted and misrepresented by this article and making clear that it doesn't do his views justice in any real way, he takes some time at the end to argue against something Miller is quoted as saying in the article.
Joe L. said,
March 7, 2010 @ 2:38 pm
The evolution of journalism leaves us weeping for the future. One does wonder, though, who exactly can’t win when scientists like Coyne still have to title a book “Why Evolution is True.” Agree Coyne’s response would be more effective had he kept focus on the journalist’s slant. Coyne’s book looks good (from the blurb on his blog). Will have to check it out.
Nathan Myers said,
March 8, 2010 @ 4:49 pm
The New York Times and the Washington Post aren't exactly the New York Times or the Washington Post, any more, either. Even the Economist isn't exactly the Economist, although unlike those it might be again. See Brad Delong's writings for copious examples of their late, systematic failings. Nowadays, maybe, to mean anything we have to say that the Phoenix isn't exactly the Financial Times.