Tuesday, November 30, 2004
News Notes
-How telling that a story on the future of network newscasting appears under the Entertainment section of CNN's website. Aren't we supposed to be informed rather than entertained by the media?
- I recently sent this article to a fellow liberal and friend from work who's an expert on brain mapping in psychophysiological studies, thinking he'd be amused that scientists had supposedly shown that Democrats had more empathy than Republicans. He was appalled, replying "These guys work at UCLA? WTF?" and, "These guys are completely talking out of their ass[es]." The article turned out to be another example of the pop-science fluff the media peddles. I should have known, though--especially since no scientific publication is cited, indicating that the study hasn't yet gone through the peer-review process, which tends to weed out crap like this.
-In case you missed it, listen to this interesting commentary recently aired on NPR:
- I recently sent this article to a fellow liberal and friend from work who's an expert on brain mapping in psychophysiological studies, thinking he'd be amused that scientists had supposedly shown that Democrats had more empathy than Republicans. He was appalled, replying "These guys work at UCLA? WTF?" and, "These guys are completely talking out of their ass[es]." The article turned out to be another example of the pop-science fluff the media peddles. I should have known, though--especially since no scientific publication is cited, indicating that the study hasn't yet gone through the peer-review process, which tends to weed out crap like this.
-In case you missed it, listen to this interesting commentary recently aired on NPR:
All Things Considered, November 23, 2004 ˇ Commentator Drew Westen studies the way that psychology and politics intersect, and he says the format of cable TV news -- throwing out a topic to two representatives of opposite sides -- capitalizes on a design flaw in the human brain. People believe what they want to believe, no matter what the facts are.