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> The Reason article blurs the distinction between SciAm's opinion pieces and its factual (or putatively factual) reporting. How are readers to know the differ

• nyeah 2y ago
  Sorry, I can't tell whether this is sarcasm or not. If it's a genuine question, the articles are labelled.
  • fireflash38 2y ago
    You can't expect people to read past the title, cmon now.
  • 23B1 2y ago
    Labeled by whom, and following what set of rules or guidelines? Are those rules agreed upon and enforced in some way? What are the consequences for breaking those rules?
    • Supermancho 2y ago
      > Labeled by whom, and following what set of rules or guidelines? Ostensibly, the staff. More specifically, editors and leadership. > Are those rules agreed upon and enforced in some way? Editorials were labeled to distinguish scientific findings, distilled to simple language for a larger audience, from opinion pieces and what-ifs. This evaporated over time. > What are the consequences for breaking those rules? The content wasn't published. Asking inane questions with simple answers, that are readily available, is not productive.
      • 23B1 2y ago
        You're not thinking deeply enough about the problem, which is annoying because I'm addressing the main thrust of the original article. Staff/editors/leadership cannot be trusted to label correctly if they are serving their own agendas. This is a real problem when we're looking to science to guide sociopolitical decision making, e.g. during a pandemic, or in childcare, or with the environment.
        • Supermancho 2y ago
          > You're not thinking deeply enough about the problem, > Staff/editors/leadership cannot be trusted to label correctly if they are serving their own agendas. This is a real problem when we're looking to science to guide sociopolitical decision making, ...or you know, you could have stated what you meant instead of asking questions you didn't care about for your own reasons. None of what you say applies to a publication any more than other forms of communication. There is a lot of philosophical rambling in these threads.
          • 23B1 2y ago
            I do care about my questions which are germane to the point of the article. I'm not being philosophical or obtuse; "who watches the watchers" is a common consideration in dealing with accountability and truth, and is indeed a core value of the scientific method. Scientific publications don't get to free themselves from that obligation if they want to be regarded as either.
        • ImPostingOnHN 2y ago
          > Staff/editors/leadership cannot be trusted to label correctly if they are serving their own agendas This can be boiled down to "nobody can be trusted to do anything", which is technically true. The question is, is there evidence of motives leading to actual misbehavior? Having a nonzero motive to misbehave isn't the same as that.
          • 23B1 2y ago
            It can be boiled down to incentive alignment - though a lot of people (falsely) believe that incentives can (or should) be tuned for social good. > is there evidence of motives leading to actual misbehavior? Yes. Having a 'very strong opinion' is a strong indicator that a publication concerned with science has gone off the rails.
            • ImPostingOnHN 2y ago
              > It can be boiled down to incentive alignment Sure, if "it" here means your opinion of what's important. Incentive alignment and misalignment isn't evidence of wrongdoing, though. > Having a 'very strong opinion' is a strong indicator that a publication concerned with science has gone off the rails. Interesting opinion. I thank you for it and respectfully disagree.
    • jjk166 2y ago
      It's weird we're at the point where there are a decent number of adults who have likely never read an actual magazine.
  • knowitnone 2y ago
    So the articles themselves have no opinions? They don't make conclusions and use carefully chosen words to sway the reader?
    • Supermancho 2y ago
      Other than to simplify the concepts for a subjectively "inclined" reader, no. Language is not mathematics. There is no perfection in the area of communication. This is not an insightful observation. Scientific America aimed to be informative and useful in context of that information, when I was a reader (80s).
      • 23B1 2y ago
        > There is no perfection in the area of communication. Bull puckey. I can be precise in my estimate, and contextual in my language. "We believe x to be generally true because of y chance of likelihood" while not precise in conclusion, it is precise in its intent, which is to communicate a degree of certainty and to convey integrity of thought. This is commonsense science writing that even the plebs can understand.