Phil Plait Calls Out ABC News for Spreading Nonsense
On Twitter today, I saw a great blog post tweeted around that is worth talking about here. Phil Plait (@BadAstronomer to you Twitter fans) wrote a post concerning the nonsense that ABC News recently broadcast while covering the results of a study between autism and gastrointestinal disorders.
In case you hadn’t heard, a panel of pediatricians reviewed all the literature available to look for a link between autism and gastrointestinal disorders. They found none. Plus, they found that special diets did not help treat autistic kids.
I’ll let Phil tell you what happens next:
So if you were a reporter at ABC News, who would you turn to to get an opinion on this? If you said Jenny McCarthy, then give yourself a gold star, because that’s just what ABC News did. Go and watch that interview (have some antacid ready). In it, she says that scientists need to take anecdotes seriously, a statement so awful it’s hard to know where to start with it.
So, if you haven’t already read it, go to Phil’s blog and check out the rest of his post. It’s a great commentary on how the media can have an agenda that is not particularly concerned with the facts.
Fiona Said,
January 7, 2010 @ 8:32 pm
*groans*
facts? nooooo. Can’t use them in the news.