Accountability Journalism

Accountability Journalism
A dispatch we noted Monday has turned the Associated Press into something of a laughingstock among scientists, Fox News reports:

They say the report, which was published on Monday, contained sweeping scientific errors and was a one-sided portrayal of a complicated issue.

“If the issues weren’t so serious and the ramifications so profound, I would have to laugh at it,” said David Deming, a geology professor at the University of Oklahoma who has been critical of media reporting on the climate change issue.

In the article, Obama Left with Little Time to Curb Global Warming, AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein wrote that global warming is “a ticking time bomb that President-elect Barack Obama can’t avoid,” and that “global warming is accelerating.” . . .

“Reporters, as I understand reporters, are supposed to report facts,” Deming said. “What he’s doing here is he’s writing a polemic and reporting it as fact, and that’s not right. It’s not reporting. It’s propaganda.

“This reads like a press release for an environmental advocacy group like Greenpeace. It’s not fair and balanced.” . . .

Michael R. Fox, a retired nuclear scientist and chemistry professor from the University of Idaho, is another academic who found serious flaws with the AP story’s approach to the issue.

“There’s very little that’s right about it,” Fox said. “And it’s really harmful to the United States because people like this Borenstein working for AP have an enormous impact on everyone, because AP sells their news service to a thousand news outlets.

“One guy like him can be very destructive and alarming. Yeah it’s freedom of speech, but its dishonest.”

Then again, Borenstein might reply, these guys are only scientists. What do they know about journalism?

‘Once Proud’
Writing in the Arab News of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, one Osama Al Sharif applauds the jerk who threw a pair of shoes at President Bush:

Bush’s name will be associated with the agonies of Iraqis for many decades to come. His farewell visit to Baghdad on Sunday ended in embarrassment when an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the US president, a symbolic assault on the man who once believed he would be greeted as “liberator” of Iraqis. Instead, the timing and logistics of his visit were shrouded in secrecy for security reasons. For millions of Iraqis, Bush will be remembered for bringing death, destruction and chaos to this once proud nation.

OK, we’ll bite. When was Iraq a proud nation, and what was it proud of?

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