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THE ANTI-JUNK SCIENTISTS
New York Post ^ | 12/04/03 | JOHN STOSSEL

Posted on 12/04/2003 4:10:20 AM PST by kattracks

Edited on 05/26/2004 5:17:36 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

December 4, 2003 -- I'M getting sick of the scare stories.

Recently TV newsmagazines (including mine) have done alarming reports on the danger of sharks, sandwiches, shoes, washing your hands too much, not washing your hands enough, coffee pots, breakfast, fruit, vegetables, your dry cleaning, dolls, cribs, crowds, day care, elevators, escalators, school buses, playgrounds, nail salons and shopping carts - and repeatedly on supposedly dangerous chemicals, like those used in rubber duckies.


(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: johnstossel; junkscience

1 posted on 12/04/2003 4:10:21 AM PST by kattracks
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To: kattracks
Bump rational thought.
2 posted on 12/04/2003 4:33:29 AM PST by RJCogburn ("Is that what they call grit in Fort Smith? We call it something else in Yell County." Mattie Ross)
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To: RJCogburn
Ten degrees in globally warming New Hampshire BUMP.
3 posted on 12/04/2003 4:34:49 AM PST by Jim Noble
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To: kattracks
Seldom (if ever) do the activists do the large-scale, statistical studies and number-crunching to see if the substances they're worried about really raise disease rates. Some of the big-name environmental groups that generate scares don't even claim to have scientists on their boards; they issue their "findings" straight to the media instead of going through peer review.

To many reporters, that doesn't matter: The activist group has some evidence of what sounds like a serious risk. They're usually accusing a rich corporation of poisoning innocent people. And that morality play makes good TV.

What could be plainer than that this sort of story is
  1. melodrama for entertainment purposes?
  2. economically convenient for trial lawyers?
  3. politically convenient for liberals?
What could be plainer than that there is therefore a symbiosis between trial lawyers, journalists, and liberal politicians? The First Amendment doesn't say that journalism will be objective, it says that journalism is a free-fire zone--and therefore implicitly political.
Why Broadcast Journalism is
Unnecessary and Illegitimate

4 posted on 12/04/2003 5:41:01 AM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (The everyday blessings of God are great--they just don't make "good copy.")
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To: farmfriend
ping
5 posted on 12/04/2003 10:54:48 AM PST by Libertarianize the GOP (Ideas have consequences)
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To: RJCogburn
"Stossel is great" placemarker
6 posted on 12/04/2003 11:03:07 AM PST by longshadow
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To: kattracks
-OR-
The di-hydrogen monoxide scare in paris,
Where a local fellow fell into a bathtub AND LIVED.... but was traumatized and humiliated for weeks... until he could smell himself again...
7 posted on 12/04/2003 11:50:23 AM PST by hosepipe
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To: kattracks; AAABEST; Ace2U; Alamo-Girl; Alas; alfons; amom; AndreaZingg; Anonymous2; ...
Rights, farms, environment ping.

Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

8 posted on 12/04/2003 6:10:24 PM PST by farmfriend ( Isaiah 55:10,11)
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To: kattracks
Bump...
9 posted on 12/04/2003 6:23:15 PM PST by tubebender (We've been married 47 years and she still doesn't put the toilet seat up for me...)
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To: farmfriend
BTTT!!!!!
10 posted on 12/05/2003 3:06:13 AM PST by E.G.C.
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