Reason Event: Discuss and Then Drink to the State of Science Journalism

Nick Gillespie | February 18, 2005

Reason and the Institute for Humane Studies present:

THE STATE OF SCIENCE JOURNALISM

7pm, Saturday, Feb. 26, 2005

The Crystal City Marriot at Reagan National Airport (1999 Jefferson
Davis Hwy, Arlington, VA), near the Crystal City Metro Stop.

Stem-cell research. Biotechnology. Global warming. Prescription drug
scandals. HIV/AIDS. Never before have so many daunitng and complicated
questions about science, medicine, and technology dominated the news--and never before has clear, accurate, and insightful writing about such topics been more important to public policy and personal decision-making. But are we getting the science journalism we need?

You're invited to participate in a freewheeling panel discussion on "The State of Science Journalism" featuring Chris
Mooney (American Prospect), Sally Satel (author of the forthcoming One
Nation Under Therapy), Ron Bailey (author of the forthcoming Liberation Biology) and Nick Gillespie (Reason magazine).

Audience Q&A to follow. Complimentary hors d'oeuvres and a
cash bar will be provided.

RSVP to Patrick Coryell.

About the moderator:

Nick Gillespie is editor-in-chief of Reason, the libertarian commentary magazine that has been called "one of the 50 best magazines" two years running by the Chicago Tribune and "less predictable and more interesting than any other political magazine" by Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit. Gillespie is also editor of the new anthology, Choice: The Best of Reason.

About the panelists:

Ronald Bailey, science correspondent for Reason magazine. Bailey, who has
written widely on stem-cell research, nanotechnology and the environmental issues, is the editor of Global Warming and Other Eco Myths: How the Environmental Movement Uses False Science to Scare Us to Death and author of the forthcoming Liberation Biology: The Moral and Scientific Defense of the Biotech Revolution (Prometheus).

Sally Satel is coauthor of the forthcoming One Nation Under Therapy: Why Self-Absorption Is Eroding Self-Reliance and author of PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine. She is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and staff psychiatrist at the Oasis Clinic in Washington, D.C. Her writing on domestic drug policy, mental health policy, and political trends in medicine has appeared in the New York Times, National Review, Forbes, The Atlantic, and many other publications.

Chris Mooney, senior correspondent for The American Prospect. Mooney has written about battles over teaching evolution, how the search for "balance" undermines scientific reporting, attempts to certify alternative medicine, and other issues for Columbia Journalism Review, Skeptical Inquirer, The Boston Globe, and elsewhere. He is writing a book about the modern conservative movement and science and maintains a blog called The Intersection.

This event is sponsored by Reason magazine and the Institute for Humane Studies.

Comments

|2.19.05 @ 2:06PM|#

Hello? Does anybody post comments here anymore? I have been out of town for a few days and I come back to a ghost town of a blog site! Its like that movie where the guy wakes up to find nobody left on earth! Why am I talking to myself?

Hello? Thoreau...Mr. Barton....RC....Joe? Anybody?

damaged justice|2.19.05 @ 2:17PM|#

Apparently everyone thought comments were still broken. Or Reason's commentary is so scintillating that potential commenters are dissuaded by its brilliance, feeling they have nothing to add.

|2.19.05 @ 2:20PM|#

The commenting system was down. I guess it only just came back up.

|2.19.05 @ 2:26PM|#

JonBuck! Thankgod, I thought I was goner lost in the maze of the Hit&Run commenting caverns! ;)

|2.19.05 @ 3:03PM|#

Yeah, I had a whole bunch of witty, pithy, and insightful comments, but now I've forgotten them all. And this margin is too small to contain them anyway...

Jesse Walker|2.19.05 @ 3:03PM|#

Comments aren't quite fixed yet, actually, though people seem to be able to post them right now. We'll put up an announcement when the system is fully functional again.

Feel free to post in the meantime; just be aware that there might be a few more bumps.

|2.19.05 @ 3:36PM|#

See! Just another market failure. I bet Gillespie is calling in a government internet planner to implement the "Radiant Servers" plan right now.

|2.19.05 @ 3:46PM|#

3:1, libertoids to liberals?

Heck, you might actually pull out a draw! ;-)

The Real joe

|2.19.05 @ 3:50PM|#

Well, it's good to see Mr. Chris Mooney included on this panel. I fully expect him to own _Reason_ "science" correspondent Ronald Bailey as well as the AEI "scholar". Gillespie should welcome this outcome because ownership of other human beings not only challenges contemporary conventions in the American political sphere, but also tests the limits of libertarian ideology.

|2.19.05 @ 5:35PM|#

I'm amused by some of the comments. This, well, looks more like a panel discussion. But, hey, "science" and claims of scientific accuracy are the new "family values".

Also, Joe, that response is just slacking - you're setting a low bar for the other trolls. (What is with the "libertoids" thing, anyway? I'd thought for a while that the whole derogatory-names-for-other-political-groups schtick was below you. But I've been mistaken, before...)

M. Simon|2.19.05 @ 5:41PM|#

Can some one tell me why with all the recent studies out on the amygdala, the cannabinoid system, PTSD, genetics, and the actual nature of addiction why no one in the science press is covering the new information.

Why do we get political innanities like Sally Satel's about the "therapy' culture instead of using known science to figure out what is happening?

Why is every look into this area blown off with the pat DEA answer: "drugs cause addiction".

Why isn't any one looking into the connection between cigarette smoking and depression. It is rather well known. Google it.

1. If drugs cause addiction why doesn't every one who tries drugs get addicted?
2. If only "addictive personalities" get addicted can some one tell me exactly what is an "addictive personality"?
3. If addiction problems are 50% genetic what is the other 50%?
4. Is it right to be persecuting people with a genetic problem?

Why do our science reporters have no interest in these questions and simply take the DEA line: "its the drugs"?

I have a few things to say here about the genetic question the amygdala cannabinoid receptor systems etc. Scroll down the side bar.

|2.19.05 @ 7:13PM|#

Just a little levity, half Eric. Smile!

|2.19.05 @ 7:28PM|#

Right up there with "Repugnicans" and "DemonRats". Classic, er, comedy...

Ruthless|2.19.05 @ 8:56PM|#

Trying to keep within the parameters of science journalism:
One doesn't know how good it is 'til it's gone:
the freedom to vent here.

As the maxipad said to the anus:
"You are the wind beneath my wings!"

|2.19.05 @ 10:54PM|#

"4. Is it right to be persecuting people with a genetic problem?"

I don't support prosecuting drug users either, but this is terrible reasoning. It's generally believed that there is some genetic predisposition to commit violence acts. That's no reason not to prosecute violent offenders. I don't really care why a person commits a criminal act. Why would genetic predisposition be any excuse?