Allen: This is the second time recently that we have seen Forbes articles
on topics relating to bees which seem uninformed and based on poor or
incomplete information.
In the early 2000s, we received a lot of press attention after DARPA
announced our use of bees to find land mines in the Wall Street Journal.
I counted 53 different papers reporting within a few days. Of these, I
had two outstanding articles:
1) Forbes - their science writer contacted me, did a long interview, wrote
up his article, and published in Forbes, and
2) National Enquirer, who I tried to dodge for days, but one day I picked
up the phone, thinking it was a call from my crew in MD, and it was a
reporter who told me that I had a choice, talk to him, and have my comments
reported, or don't talk, and he'd write the article anyway.
Now, here's the rub. The Forbes article wasn't even close to factual - he
had us putting chemical sniffing devices on bees, doing all sorts of
things, sounded like a script from Star Wars. Did get a nice cartoon of bees
wearing helmets and carrying metal detectors flying across mine fields. The
article was just as accurate as the cartoon.
I shuddered to read the Enquirer article. Guess what, they got it right!!
Shortly thereafter, there was a national meeting of science tech writers in
Missoula. I told them this story, asked when did fact finding stop at
spelling my name right, rather than getting the article right. I said I
thought I should see reporters articles before they were published, so that I
could check that they got it right, provide corrections. All but one in
the room said that would compromise their viewpoints and that of their
magazines, several said that they would be fired if they provide a copy to the
person interviewed prior to publication. ONLY one said he routinely did
this, found that researchers really responded to being asked, thought it made
his articles better - but that he had had editors who didn't agree with this
approach.
Finally, in the 1980s, I testified at an EPA hearing in Seattle. One of
the local papers covered the hearing and my testimony. A few days later, I
got a questionnaire from the paper's Ombudsman, asking - did the reporter
get the story right, was I correctly quoted? Was the headline correct. In
40 years, that's the ONLY time that ever happened.
So, I try to hand pick journalists that I talk to. First time I see a
badly written article or edited interview, that's it. When I find one who
gets it right, who wants to get it right, and who asks me to proof the draft,
I'll keep working with she/he. These are few and far between.
Jerry
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