Why Oh Why Can't We Be a Better Press Corps? (William Saletan/Slate Edition)

Perhaps the most amazing thing about America's press corps is how easily they are pwn3d: how shoddy their research is, how narrow their knowledge is, how mentally inept they are at what is supposed to be their job: understanding and evaluating sources. It must be a trained incapacity: nobody could be this stupid without long practice.

Robert Farley of Lawyers, Guns, and Money on William Saletan, who may at last have come to a dim form of self-knowledge:

Lawyers, Guns and Money: Apology Not Accepted, Bill: Saletan:

I missed something I could have picked up from a simple glance at Wikipedia.

For the past five years, J. Philippe Rushton has been president of the Pioneer Fund, an organization dedicated to "the scientific study of heredity and human differences." During this time, the fund has awarded at least $70,000 to the New Century Foundation. To get a flavor of what New Century stands for, check out its publications on crime ("Everyone knows that blacks are dangerous") and heresy ("Unless whites shake off the teachings of racial orthodoxy they will cease to be a distinct people"). New Century publishes a magazine called American Renaissance, which preaches segregation. Rushton routinely speaks at its conferences.

I was negligent in failing to research and report this. I'm sorry. I owe you better than that.

"Hack" doesn't really begin to cover it. Saletan sallied forth with the argument that the evidence for inherent intellectual inequality between races was so compelling that liberals who questioned the science were equivalent to creationists. Now we find that, in addition to not understanding most of the science he was trying to talk about, he didn't even bother to do basic research into the compelling work he was citing.

More Bill:

I wanted to discuss whether egalitarianism could survive if this scenario, raised last month by James Watson, turned out to be true. I thought it was important to lay out the scenario's plausibility. In doing so, I short-circuited the conversation. Most of the reaction to what I wrote has been over whether the genetic hypothesis is true, with me as an expert witness.

I don't want this role. I'm not an expert.

Huh. So I guess that's why Bill devoted two columns to stressing how strong the science was and how reluctant to accept the truth liberals were, and one column to a few half-assed ruminations about the political implications. And I guess that's why he felt the need to write this missive to the liberal masses:

Evolution forced Christians to bend or break. They could insist on the Bible's literal truth and deny the facts, as Bryan did. Or they could seek a subtler account of creation and human dignity. Today, the dilemma is yours. You can try to reconcile evidence of racial differences with a more sophisticated understanding of equality and opportunity. Or you can fight the evidence and hope it doesn't break your faith.

I'm for reconciliation.

Yeah; I'm pretty strongly against reconciliation with someone who thought taunting liberals for not believing shoddy racist science was more important than doing basic journalistic research.

Seriously, what does somebody have to do to get fired from Slate?

Comments

[Charles]

I would think a political commentator who didn't know who J. Phillippe Rushton was would have to have lived in a cave.

On Mars.

It's worth reading the section of Wikipedia on Rushton's scholarly misconduct. While none of us want to condemn someone entirely for one misstep, or even two, the arrogance of racialist "theories" seems entirely consistent with the arrogance of making up the rules for treatment of human subjects as one goes.

[jnickens]

What does it take to get fired at Slate? Fox News? The Washington Post? Truth doesn't seem to be involved. Maybe somebody could ask Dan Rather what it takes to get fired. I think subject matter might be involved.

[Barry]

Brad: "Perhaps the most amazing thing about America's press corps is how easily they are pwn3d: how shoddy their research is, how narrow their knowledge is, how mentally inept they are at what is supposed to be their job: understanding and evaluating sources. It must be a trained incapacity: nobody could be this stupid without long practice."

As Will Rogers said (quote from memory): "It's hard to get a man to understand something if his paycheck depends on him not understanding it.".

I'll admit that there's a lot of room for learned stupidity in the mainstream media, but that's no more than half of the story. I've seen lots of elite MSM presstitutes wh*ring for right-wing lies; precious few accepting left-wing lies. Follow the money.

[Barry]

Posted by: JFred:

" 1. There are masses upon masses devoted to conning journalists, bloggers and such. Falling for their stuff once in a while is normal. Does Saletan actually have a staff?"

Step 1 in conning any journalist who's not literally braind-dead: don't post something under your own name, when a Wikipedia search would reveal that you're less trustworthy than an astrologer on crack. So that's not the answer.

"2. Brad's blog isn't any more scientific. Brad rejected the findings on political and moral grounds, not based on a scientific analysis. "

That's a lie, as anybody would know who read Brad's linked posts. He has discussed this crap repeatedly, working out the math flaws, and has linked to others' refutations.

3. Confession: I haven't read Saletan's column nor Rushton's writings. Just Brad's.

[jerry]

That has to be one of those moments where, having found that out, most people would hope for the car to have a sudden blowout leading to a fiery impact into an overpass, or the elevator to just freakily plummet to the bottom of the shaft, or for a massive sinkhole to open beneath their home before they wake up.

Most people.

Most journalists just write a two line correction and down another tini.

[Jar Jar Binks]

Slate isn't really part of the "press corps" buddy.

[kharris]

What one does at Slate to get fired is to write something non-controversial. Giving credence to the view of any given group, no matter how well founded that view, is not allowed.

"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, ..."

Sorry, but I'm not young enough to know what is intended by "pwn3d". I understand from a quick web-search that it is an expression of the young, but it is always assumed that I am current on expressions of the young. In English (or Dutch or French or Spanish, if you must), what is "pwn3d"?

[Octavian]

IQ tests are test typically given late in elementary school and as such deserve to be treated with the same respect that all elementary school tests are. There are books written on how IQ tests fail to really capture the multifaceted bundle of talents that we call intelligence.

Despite the repeated puncturing of the myth of IQ for at least my entire adult life, belief in IQ continues to hold. I have to assume because some people still need (consciously or unconsciously) to believe that blacks are inferior.

Saleton forgot to doubt proven liars. It isn't like the topic is new. As with claims that "we could have won in Vietnam" doubt first. Extraordinary claims deserve extraordinary evidence.

[J Thomas]

"Perhaps the most amazing thing about America's press corps is how easily they are pwn3d: how shoddy their research is, how narrow their knowledge is, how mentally inept they are at what is supposed to be their job: understanding and evaluating sources. It must be a trained incapacity: nobody could be this stupid without long practice."

Was there a time in the past when they were better?

I've consistently seen the media do a bad job with things I knew about. As long as I've been watching.

And history -- the days of yellow journalism were special because they followed a particular lying path instead of getting things wrong every-which-way.

What's different now is that I can get on blogs and talk about it, not just write letters to the editor.

So OK, I figure that Saletan should not have quoted Rushton as an authority at all, at best Rushton would serve as some kind of horrible example. But I wouldn't be surprised if Rushton would say that Saletan got his stuff all wrong about things I wouldn't care about.

It's like, if a scientologist tells a reporter that originally humanity came from Ganymede, and the story comes out that he said we all came from Mars. As far as I'm concerned that's close enough, that tells me what I want to know about the source. But to the scientologist it might make a big difference.

They treat it like it's entertainment.

[sm]

Any so called journalist who is conned by Rushton is negligent, stupid or dishonest.

[Charles]

J. Thomas, Rushton was reprimanded by his university TWICE for improper treatment of human subjects.

It does not take a doctorate in the field to know that there's a problem.

[J. Galves]

Octavian,

If you want to see a group fiercely dedicated to defending racial differences, MR's comments section is the place. Tyler Cowen doesn't truck with it, but plenty of his readers stress 'inherent and undeniable genetic differences.' Unfortunately, they're not referring to sickle cell anemia.

[MobiusKlein]

"pwn3d" = owned in 'elite' (wanna be hacker slang.) Used when an attacker gains control of a system, or otherwise makes a total fool of somebody.

[Measure for Measure]

Saletan is almost always interesting, provocative and at least a little wrong-headed. I read him regularly, against my better judgment. The headlines pull me in.

I suspect that he earns a lot of page-views. In journalism being boring is a far worse sin than consistent use of shoddy argument, alas.

[stewart]

Didn't know who Rushton is? Perhaps he could have contacted a psychologist with a passing knowledge of the field, who could point out the documented howlers and stupidity that Rushton has produced since 1988, the many debunkings that have been published in academic journals, and the utter lack of any response from Rushton.
I've been reading, debunking, and annoyed by his stuff since 1988, and haven't yet met a psychologist in the field of individual differences who buys it, although I know many who do research that's applicable - it just contradicts everything he's said. And despite some comments above, IQ tests are useful tools, but they are only tools.

[IM]

I think this more often attributed to Upton Sinclair. According to wikiquote:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked (1935),

[Barry]

Thanks, IM.

Excuse: I was just being brave and contrarian!!! :)

[wood turtle]

Thanks too, IM.

Shows how little DeLong knows about computer slang. After he says "pwn3d" he is supposed to say srsly. It says so in kitty cat Revelations.

[mistah charley, ph.d.]

My source for definitions of terms like "pwn3d" and "srsly" is urbandictionary.com - as readers are the main source of definitions it could be construed as a Web 2.0 site.

[Shane]

Good post. It is absolutely sad how the media can mess up, and there's plenty of blame to go around both left and right wing. Sometimes I wonder what "independent" even means anymore, or if that is just a pipe dream.