Walking in a Journalist’s Shoes

If you had to assign a grade for the news coverage of science issues, what would it be?

In many cases, the grade would be poor because most scientists have a negative perception of journalists. According to a 1997 survey by the nonprofit Freedom Forum First Amendment Center, 88% of scientists surveyed thought that news managers were more interested in selling newspapers and attracting viewers than telling people what they needed to know, and 76% believed the news media were more interested in sen…