# I pit the New York Times, specifically their science reporting **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 11, 2025, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-new-york-times-specifically-their-science-reporting/1024777 "2025-11-11T16:04:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-new-york-times-specifically-their-science-reporting/1024777/21 "2025-11-17T01:30:32Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Bamba in Israel and that observation of low peanut allergy rates there was exactly where the revision came out of. It motivated a study comparing matched Jews in England and Israel with documentation of ten times more peanut allergy in the English group. That was followed by a prospective study in high risk infants which showed a sevenfold decrease in severe peanut allergy with introduction between six and twelve months. I had thought it was a comparison of NYC and Israeli Jews, but yes, i read exactly the same story. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-new-york-times-specifically-their-science-reporting/1024777/22 "2025-11-17T02:47:39Z")
The [2008 article](https://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(08)01698-9/fulltext) if interested, @puzzlegal . > [@smithsb](#): > > And then there’s the NY Post and whatever study they referenced. Collapse of the Gulf Stream could usher in a new Ice Age and raise sea levels. Not the just the Gulf Stream (although it is part of it) but the article is not too off the mark of the actual science: [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39810-w](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39810-w) > The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is a major tipping element in the climate system and a future collapse would have severe impacts on the climate in the North Atlantic region … The actual impacts would not be an Ice Age but would be potentially interacting with other climate change aspects with complicated impacts that would vary by location, summarized well in this [CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/11/climate/ocean-currents-amoc-collapse-extreme-cold) bit. AMOC being weaker specifically increases sea level rise on the United States East coast. Short version is it would be a very bad thing and not just simply going the other direction from warming impacts. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-new-york-times-specifically-their-science-reporting/1024777/23 "2025-11-17T04:28:25Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > The [2008 article](https://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(08)01698-9/fulltext) if interested I don’t know if that’s the same study i saw results from, because that was before i started looking up the original studies. I just read about it in the newspapers. Probably, i remembered wrong. I did remember that an observation that Israelis are rarely allergic to peanuts and also that Israeli infants eat a peanut-based snack food were the impetus for the research, which matched two genetically similar Jewish populations. And then was followed up by a prospective study feeding peanuts to high-risk infants. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-new-york-times-specifically-their-science-reporting/1024777/24 "2025-11-17T04:49:17Z")
Yup. That UK study was the first bit. [The LEAP (Learning Early about Peanut Allergy) trial](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1414850) was the second prospective part. And Bamba was da bomb. FWIW many practicing pediatricians had long been skeptical of the avoidance until 15ish months bit, just based on the fact that food allergies, especially peanut allergy, had not only not decreased in the era of doing that but increased significantly. Did not prove that delayed introduction was the cause, could have been coincidence to some other factor, but enough to have many of us being a bit … really? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-new-york-times-specifically-their-science-reporting/1024777/25 "2025-11-19T15:27:52Z")
And, your local epidemiologist posts on the issue, barely touching the politics or the people, but with very solid reporting of underlying medical information. > **[Beyond the black box: What women deserve to know about menopause hormone therapy](https://open.substack.com/pub/yourlocalepidemiologist/p/what-women-deserve?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=zgvzt)** > > What the updated guidance on menopause hormone therapy means for safety, symptoms, and informed care ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-new-york-times-specifically-their-science-reporting/1024777/26 "2025-11-19T16:31:07Z")
Thanks. I came in to post that YLE link. ---
**Author:** ![bmasters1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@bmasters1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmasters1)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2025, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-new-york-times-specifically-their-science-reporting/1024777/27 "2025-11-29T11:51:42Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Do folks think this NYT behavior is a shift driven by considerations of profit, or a shift driven by considerations of politics, or some of both, or not a shift at all, or a shift driven by something else? I think it came because Trump was forever and ever insisting they were “fake news” and “failing” as they were (something that, as I understand it, no other President outside of Nixon has ever done), and so the Times decided, if you can’t beat him, join him, and so that’s probably how they got how they are now. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2025, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-new-york-times-specifically-their-science-reporting/1024777/28 "2025-11-29T14:02:50Z")
Has this incident been brought up? I don’t think the Time’s science reporting has ever been, to coin a phrase, stellar. > **[Robert H. Goddard. The New York Times.](https://www.astronauticsnow.com/history/goddard/index.html)** > > Robert H. Goddard. The New York Times trashes Robert H. Goddard in 1920 and then (sort of) regrets in ... 1969. Mainstream media. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2025, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-new-york-times-specifically-their-science-reporting/1024777/29 "2025-11-29T14:42:40Z")
I was not aware of that. That’s funny. And sad. Today they had an article citing Kennedy on dairy fat. The rest of the article wasn’t crazy. But just the fact that they cited him felt off. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2025, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-new-york-times-specifically-their-science-reporting/1024777/30 "2025-11-29T14:53:55Z")
Mr. Gruntman seem to have been completely whooshed by the obvious self-deprecating sarcasm of the Times’ 1969 “correction.” ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2025, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-new-york-times-specifically-their-science-reporting/1024777/31 "2025-11-29T14:58:38Z")
The Grey Lady has never been known for comedy either. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2025, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-new-york-times-specifically-their-science-reporting/1024777/32 "2025-11-29T15:01:58Z")
It was a pretty shitty apology. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2025, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-new-york-times-specifically-their-science-reporting/1024777/33 "2025-11-29T16:14:46Z")
> [@Tatterdemalion](#): > > The Grey Lady has never been known for comedy either. Word. They _still_ don’t have a comics page. Hell, when Charlie Brown made headlines by hitting a home run in 1993, their readers had to buy the Daily News to find out any context. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2025, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-new-york-times-specifically-their-science-reporting/1024777/34 "2025-11-29T16:39:57Z")
My main beef with the N.Y. Times’ science reporting is their continued use of the word “skeptic” to describe the likes of RFK Jr. Neurologist Dr. Steven Novella has an accurate definition of “skeptic”. It is not a person who denies science based on fanciful beliefs and ideology. A skeptic is… > [@](#): > > … one who prefers beliefs and conclusions that are reliable and valid to ones that are comforting or convenient, and therefore rigorously and openly applies the methods of science and reason to all empirical claims, especially their own. A skeptic provisionally proportions acceptance of any claim to valid logic and a fair and thorough assessment of available evidence, and studies the pitfalls of human reason and the mechanisms of deception so as to avoid being deceived by others or themselves. Skepticism values method over any particular conclusion. > **[Steven Novella](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Novella)** > > Steven Paul Novella (born July 29, 1964) is an American clinical neurologist and associate professor at Yale University School of Medicine. Novella is best known for his involvement in the skeptical movement as a host of The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast and as the president of the New England Skeptical Society. He is a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI). > Novella was born July 29, 1964\[citation needed\] to Joseph Novella and Patricia Novella née Danbury. He was raised... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-new-york-times-specifically-their-science-reporting/1024777.md?page=1)