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CNN Screws the Pooch: Cancels Science, Space and Technology Section

Posted by PZ Myers, Pharyngula at 9:32 AM on December 5, 2008.


Who needs good science coverage, after all, since nothing important happens in that area.
cnninthecrosshairs

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As part of an ongoing program of reducing their relevance and demolishing their credibility, CNN has just completely shut down their Science, Space and Technology unit. Who needs good science coverage, after all, since nothing important happens in that area...and as the US continues to dumb down its educational system, the number of interested viewers is probably dropping, too.

The media knows where the profits lie, and it's not in that expensive journalism stuff -- it's in the cheap and popular domain of opinionated airheads shouting at each other. This is symptomatic of a deep intellectual rot in this country.

Digg!

Tagged as: technology, journalism, science, space, cnn, intellectual rot, u.s. ignorance

PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris. He runs the science blog, Pharyngula.


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Canada!
Posted by: benzene on Dec 5, 2008 10:46 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It's OK. Really, it is. If the viewership ratings of such blowhards as O'Reilly et al are any indication of the level of intellectual curiosity of the average American, then CNN was just wasting its money anyway. Those of us who are interested in science and technology will get our science news elsewhere.

Seriously, sometimes science reporting can really really really suck. When the news media latches on to each and every new research about diet or mental health or erectile dysfunction and reports it as THE TRUTH(tm), real people get misled and confused. That kind of thing works better when the reporting happens after a scientific consensus is reached. That isn't to say that doctors and health advisory boards should not be informed by the latest science, because they should. But they shouldn't be informed by glamorous sound bites either, they should be reading research and talking to their peers.

Or perhaps it isn't OK at all. CNN canceling coverage may very well be symptomatic of how scientific research itself is faring in the USA. NIH funding has remained stagnant over the last 8 years and grants have become much more competitive (this is a qualitative observation, not quantitative). Academic research labs who conduct basic biomedical research and educate both new scientists and doctors are running out of funding and it is falling to their respective institutions to either fund them themselves or let them fail. If we as a nation lose the capacity to conduct real research (and marketing research does not count!), then we are also going to lose the dynamo that used to drive our economy. And if that happens, gasp!, we'll be just like Canada!

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» RE: Canada! Posted by: sju
Inform Oneself
Posted by: QQOblivion on Dec 5, 2008 2:34 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I get most of my popular-science stories from the BBC website now days. (I especially like that they have a separate section for tech stories and another section for environment/natural-science stories, instead of combining the tech with the rest of the science topics.)
Scientific American has a good site too. But I am sure there are even better sites out there, each aimed at different subsections of the general topic of science.

My point is, thank god for the web. It equalizes the level of information available for those with an internet connection and who are not living in a country that censors access.
Otherwise, can you imagine how EVEN DUMBER the average American would be if we had to rely on the mainstream media for our science news? You think it is bad now!
And, by the way, at least CNN hasn't cancelled their entertainment section! We wouldn't stand for THAT here in America! (I am just assuming without actually researching it that they haven't canceled the Hollywood reporting. But I bet that that is a good assumption of mine.)

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Well... yet another reason
Posted by: Quannah on Dec 5, 2008 5:43 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
why I won't watch CNN!

(The reasons are multiplying like freakin' rabbits!)

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The Rot
Posted by: mikehattan on Dec 6, 2008 5:18 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The Rot is already well established.It started in the Bushes.

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A solution
Posted by: s.duplantier on Dec 6, 2008 5:29 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If CNN producers simply installed a busty Ph.D. science correspondent who mixed science news with diet advice and also tied a science angle to, say, Brittany Spears breaking news (e.g. bipolar disease + crotch shots) we could have it all.

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Stupid?
Posted by: solitarysherlockian on Dec 6, 2008 9:07 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Who needs an, edication? Speling ain't so big a deal...gramars is so boreing. Potatoe.

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Oye como va!
Posted by: wildbill on Dec 6, 2008 11:09 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
- Carlos Santana

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THE RIGHT WINGERS HAVE BEEN ANTI-SCIENCE AT LEAST SINCE THE NIXON ADMINISTRATION. REAGAN
Posted by: Raymond Emerson on Dec 6, 2008 11:09 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
was careful to fund fake science to try to destroy science. Their only interest is in something that they can make a buck out of in the next 15 minutes.

This short sightedness has been the modus operandi of the NEOCON. It has put us in the shape we are in. The U. S. led the world. It is slipping away. The worlds is just passing us. It is very much the fault of an ignorant right wing.

The search for the Higgs bosun is not going on in the United States. The decision will likely be made at CERN. Actually the big accelerator that was canceled in east Texas should have happened. It got to be just a matter of jealousy.

Just think what we could have done if we hadn't become obsessed with shooting Arabs. It certainly hasn't improved our popularity with Arabs. Eventually we will pay for it in increased ignorance also.

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CNN Breaking News!
Posted by: dougo on Dec 8, 2008 2:15 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Corporate America wants to keep you stupid.
The next step will be more of who Brittney is screwing and even less information that concerns a real life.Whats next,Wolff Blitzer's Creationism Today followed by Huckabee's Modern Evangelicalism?
Keep up the good work CNN and we'll see you at the government bailout trough soon.

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these sections are still there
Posted by: sinfony78 on Dec 9, 2008 8:12 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
they are just harder to get to...but i've seen and have been to links on astronomy, science, technology, etc...the links are actually broken down into more specific categories than just science, space, and technology

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