Beyerstein was the reason I stopped listening to the Point of Inquiry podcast several years ago. She was an insufferably bad interviewer. Whereas her predecessor, DJ Grothe, was quite good at asking questions that permitted a conversation with a guest to follow a natural kind of flow, it was clear Beyerstein was simply asking questions off a script that was rigidly crafted to lead in one, pre-ordained direction. The interviews she did felt like performances done for the sole purpose of validating or promoting her own beliefs, with the guest acting merely as a foil or prop.
I mention this little bit of history only because it appears to fit with the recent arc of her career, which seems to have continued on in the same spirit of spending a lot of words to endorse her own partisan convictions under the guise of "reporting". She hadn't been on my radar until I saw that hit piece on "Viral" a couple weeks back. A read through some of her other recent publications shows she still hasn't managed to mature beyond the "affluent-girl-who-went-to-private-school-and-snarkily-blogs-for-the-resistance" shtick.
One of the things the pandemic has taught me is that journalism (particularly science writing) is in a particularly bad state right now. There are some glimmers of hope, but they're overshadowed by a lot of dark clouds. Perhaps the best thing that could happen to news media would be for publishers to start hiring more writers who specifically *don't* have college degrees. In other words, start putting the job of investigative reporting back in the hands of people who actually experience (or at least witness first-hand) the pains of being poor, living paycheck-to-paycheck, or dying from preventable disease. As long as privileged types like Beyerstein continue to suck up all the oxygen, we're going to suffer through more of this smug "tourism reporting" through Middle America by people who've never even seen the place.
There seems an extraordinary backlash to the lab leak theory that looks more likely as time progresses. Any ideas if viral was given a fair review anywhere?
Long experience of critical appraisal of medical research papers prompts me to ask, what vested interests do the authors, editors and publishers have and have they been properly declared? New Republic seems a long way off being a peer reviewed publication and their affiliations are not transparent to me. Many international publishers are now under pressure from vested political and commercial interests, including the CCP
I don't think there is much in the way of a "conflict of interest" when it comes to The New Republic. What's obviously going on is a lack of fact checking as went on in the past.
Beyerstein was the reason I stopped listening to the Point of Inquiry podcast several years ago. She was an insufferably bad interviewer. Whereas her predecessor, DJ Grothe, was quite good at asking questions that permitted a conversation with a guest to follow a natural kind of flow, it was clear Beyerstein was simply asking questions off a script that was rigidly crafted to lead in one, pre-ordained direction. The interviews she did felt like performances done for the sole purpose of validating or promoting her own beliefs, with the guest acting merely as a foil or prop.
I mention this little bit of history only because it appears to fit with the recent arc of her career, which seems to have continued on in the same spirit of spending a lot of words to endorse her own partisan convictions under the guise of "reporting". She hadn't been on my radar until I saw that hit piece on "Viral" a couple weeks back. A read through some of her other recent publications shows she still hasn't managed to mature beyond the "affluent-girl-who-went-to-private-school-and-snarkily-blogs-for-the-resistance" shtick.
One of the things the pandemic has taught me is that journalism (particularly science writing) is in a particularly bad state right now. There are some glimmers of hope, but they're overshadowed by a lot of dark clouds. Perhaps the best thing that could happen to news media would be for publishers to start hiring more writers who specifically *don't* have college degrees. In other words, start putting the job of investigative reporting back in the hands of people who actually experience (or at least witness first-hand) the pains of being poor, living paycheck-to-paycheck, or dying from preventable disease. As long as privileged types like Beyerstein continue to suck up all the oxygen, we're going to suffer through more of this smug "tourism reporting" through Middle America by people who've never even seen the place.
There seems an extraordinary backlash to the lab leak theory that looks more likely as time progresses. Any ideas if viral was given a fair review anywhere?
Not sure. I have a copy from the publisher, but am behind on reading and haven't gotten to it.
Look forward to your review 😉
I gave “Viral” a fair review and I have seen others: https://michaelbalter.substack.com/p/book-review-the-lab-leak-hypothesis
Thanks for this!
Long experience of critical appraisal of medical research papers prompts me to ask, what vested interests do the authors, editors and publishers have and have they been properly declared? New Republic seems a long way off being a peer reviewed publication and their affiliations are not transparent to me. Many international publishers are now under pressure from vested political and commercial interests, including the CCP
I don't think there is much in the way of a "conflict of interest" when it comes to The New Republic. What's obviously going on is a lack of fact checking as went on in the past.