Tuesday, July 15, 2014

David Jacobs and Junk Journalism



David Jacobs profiled by a mainstream media outlet with no mention of the Emma Woods scandal = journalistic fail.

Paul Kimball

4 comments:

Terry the Censor said...

To be fair, there's no way an MSM journalist is going to be sufficiently informed about alien abduction to know how to assess Jacob's ridiculous research methods. Even so, there are obvious questions:

"Professor, do any academic historical associations advocate the use of hypnosis to gather testimony?" Numerous followups to that can be made.

"Professor, have you submitted your abductions findings to any history, law enforcement, psychology [etc] journal?" Many different forms of that question can be asked.

"Professor, have you submitted any physical evidence to your scientific colleagues at Temple for assessment?"

No doubt, others can think of many more obvious questions.

Paul Kimball said...

I think you're being much too "fair," Terry... although perhaps I hold journalists to a higher standard than you do (no offense meant by that). A basic google search of Jacobs' name would have revealed the Woods case, which should have been enough for any journalist to say either (a) this needs to be addressed in the story, or (b) umm... perhaps we just shouldn't give this creepy old nutcase any publicity.

PK

Terry the Censor said...

> I think you're being much too "fair," Terry

Oh, no! I'll have to change my handle!

Anyway, option B should have been the thought of the assignment editor. Calling Shermer for "balance" is ridiculous -- he knows very little about ufology.

Emma said...

A friend of mine tried to post comments on the article, and his comments were blocked. Maybe they did know about the information I have provided, but for some reason believe Dr. Jacobs? It does not inspire confidence in their journalism.