Po-Mo Wingers and Scientific vs. Journalistic objectivity

[BurtWorm]

http://conovermedia.blogspot.com/2006/02/journalism-from-software-perspective.html

...<U>nlike journalistic objectivity, which proposes itself to be an artificial perspective, scientific objectivity is a documented process. A requirement of that process is that it be recorded clearly enough that findings are repeatable for all observers (in the case of laboratory experiments) or clearly controlled for the observer’s subjective perspective (field observation of a single event or series of events). When viewed from a distance, this process of objectivity varies for each individual discipline, but its philosophy is constant: Always be aware of the subjectivity of the observer, use agreed-upon standards, and show your work.

In other words, scientists have created a system of objectivity, and by abiding within its rules, civilization has flourished. Scientific objectivity allows a physicist in Oslo to derive a bit of knowledge that a physicist in Kyoto can apply to a larger experiment. While scientists do test each other’s findings, science does not re-invent wheels. This is why there is only one Uncertainty Principle – Heisenberg’s.

Compare this to modern journalism.

By our standards, if Al Gore took up physics and claimed he had derived an Uncertainty Principle, journalists leaving his press conference would be expected to call the White House for a response. The story announcing the Gore Uncertainty Principle (GUP) would likely point out that the Heritage Foundation has a competing Uncertainty Principle (HFUP), then noting in passing that that someone named Heisenberg had done similar work in the 1920s. Being journalistically objective, most versions of this story would report each of these claims as limited facts (the fact being that individuals had stated the claims) without attempting to evaluate those claims.

Along the way, we’d quote Gore saying why his GUP reaffirms the principles of participatory democracy, while a Heritage Foundation spokesman would opine about how the GUP gets it entirely, backwards wrong: the HFUP clearly proves that President Bush won both Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004.

A week later, a major media outlet might attempt to write a follow-up piece critically examining the claims, and if the reporter had any scientific expertise, this new story would likely conclude that Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle is the only one that matters, and that the partisan versions of this essential theory of quantum physics are, at best, irrelevant...