The tension between scientists and journalists goes back a long time: The vaporings and idle imaginings of the newspaper man, I am compelled to believe, are more acceptable both to landlords and tourists, than any presentation of actual facts. That’s University of California Professor C.B. Bradley, writing in Overland Monthly & Out West Magazine in …
Last spring, I wrote a half-hearted defense of the New York Times decision to shitcan its Green Blog and related decisions: A Green blog is a place where environmenty people go to look for environmenty news. If we’re doing it right, that sort of news is embedded in all sorts of stories rather than a …
Continue reading ‘New York Times green shift: the verdict’ »
I got what may be my all time favorite reader comment a couple of weeks back when I tried to explain that the summer rains New Mexico has been getting do not mean our drought is over: This article is miserablism at its absolute worst. How about looking at important progress in reservoirs like Conchas …
Continue reading ‘July rain: what a difference a month makes’ »
The Independent – Dirty water and poor hygiene stunting growth of millions: The BBC – Clean water and soap ‘boost growth’ in young children:
Amid some tears today over the tragic death of my former colleague Mike Taugher, I found a couple of stories he wrote about California water worth sharing. Mike was the Albuquerque Journal’s environment beat reporter back in the 1990s, and a nicer colleague you couldn’t have found, a talent, a joy to work with, a …
Continue reading ‘Mike Taugher, a journalist’s journalist’ »
always get the name of the beer: On my way home from work, I picked up a six-pack of Saison 88, a beer produced by Santa Fe Brewing Co. The advertised alcohol content is 5.5 percent.
Newspaper people don’t become newspaper people because they want to get rich, or because they want to be famous, they do so because they believe in what newspapers do. TJ Sullivan, in his explanation of why he went to Roger Ebert’s funeral
The reaction at the office today to the death of newspaperman Roger Ebert was striking. I cannot think of another writer of American English with the same broad, beloved appeal. One friend, a younger-generation journalist who’s from Chicago, sent around a collection of particularly delicious fragments from Ebert movie reviews, and I was struck by …
I’ve been a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists for a number of years, but every year when my renewal notice comes up I wrestle anew with the membership and the label it entails.* I’m a journalist who covers topics that are sometimes labeled “environmental”, but I’m not sure how to define the subject …
Continue reading ‘A half-hearted defense of the New York Times decision to kill the green blog’ »
[A]n informed and properly motivated risk communicator would proceed deliberately and cautiously. In particular, because efforts to quiet public fears about vaccines will predictably create some level of exactly that fear, such a communicator will not engage in a high-profile, sustained campaign to “reassure” the general public that vaccines are safe without reason to believe …