# Sad, sorry journalism

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-sorry-journalism/978863>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 27, 2023, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-sorry-journalism/978863 "2023-01-27T01:15:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2023, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-sorry-journalism/978863/41 "2023-01-29T11:14:35Z")

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> [@ZonexandScout](#):
>
> Very rarely see this anymore. I often give up reading an article when they haven’t gone anywhere at all in the first dozen graphs. It’s all just build-up and snarky comments to that point. Folks, it’s not a romance novel or a murder mystery. It’s supposed to be a news article.

Many of the straight news stories are written as if they were features.

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**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2023, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sad-sorry-journalism/978863/42 "2023-01-29T11:59:36Z")

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> [@rowrrbazzle](#):
>
> I’ll just leave these here.
> 
> “Everything you read in the newspapers is absolutely true—except for the rare story of which you happen to have firsthand knowledge.”  
> —Knoll’s Law of Media Accuracy (Erwin Knoll, editor, “The Progressive”)
> 
> “Early in life I have noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper…”  
> —George Orwell, “Looking Back on the Spanish War” (1943)

There have been a few news stories where I’ve had some inside knowledge, or science or technology stories where I know more about the subject than the writer, and the above is absolutely true. If you have even a bit of first-hand knowledge about the story, the obvious lack of accuracy in news reporting can be really appalling. For some reason, incompetent science and technology journalists piss me off even more that general ones.

There are exceptions, and they’re sometimes surprising. The national science commentator for CBC television and radio in Canada, Bob McDonald, is self-taught, having no formal academic training, yet is a capable and intelligent science journalist. His interviews with actual scientists reflect a well-informed curiosity. He’s won many awards for his work, including recognition by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada, the Royal Canadian Institute, and the Royal Society of Canada. A lot of his work has been devoted to inspiring children with a love of science. Journalists like that are all too rare. I’ve met a number of “science journalists” and most of them seem to be wannabe poets and novelists with little regard for, or interest in, science.

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