Comments on: Disappearing The Science News

By: A Lot Of Things Happen While You’re Riding A Swan Boat | The Loom | Discover Magazine

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:38:43 +0000

[...] The disappearing news remains disappeared. On July 10, I described how a wretched article about sex seemingly vanished from a newspaper’s archives after [...]

By: a ciência e a veiculação da ciência « ciência na mídia

a ciência e a veiculação da ciência « ciência na mídia — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:24:42 +0000

[...] um recorte “cienciacionalista” (um exemplo recente está muito bem avaliado no post Disappearing the science news de Carl Zimmer – leia comentário anterior aqui). E aí eu pergunto: a confusão na cabeça [...]

By: mjaybee

mjaybee — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:37:42 +0000

The media are all whores.

By: Vidi: Science « Archaeoastronomy

Vidi: Science « Archaeoastronomy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:01:03 +0000

[...] Disappearing The Science News | The Loom Catch the news in Science before it disappears! The Daily Telegraph’s attempt at writing up a student’s research on rape as an entertaining piece has backfired. [...]

By: Julie Simon Lakehomer

Julie Simon Lakehomer — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:34:49 +0000

Seeing both articles is like seeing two entirely different articles. The first is a really lame incitement to the second. Have to wonder about the mindset of that second writer.

By: Women who dress provocatively more likely to be raped, claim scientists. Not. « Catherine Bray

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:06:32 +0000

[...] URL and title) to the apology. But it hasn’t. Indeed, as Carl Zimmer observed on Twitter (and in a later blog post): [...]

By: Telegraph’s “dirty war” against mainstream science gathers pace « Don’t Get Fooled Again

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:03:06 +0000

[...] leave a comment » I’ve been away so I’m only just catching up with the amusing developments in the latest wave of the Daily Telegraph’s all-out war against mainstream science… [...]

By: pv

pv — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:10:50 +0000

Re: …the mainstream media are under plenty of “pressures and financial constraints” these days…
Mainstream media reporting of things scientific or medical has be dire for decades, if it has ever been good at all. What was their excuse for fabricating and hyping the MMR vaccination scare? They spent man-years and column acres on that practical joke.
Really, if they haven’t the resources to cover scientific or health matters properly then they shouldn’t cover them at all and leave that work to those who do have the time and resources. Better that than pretend to do the job, do it dreadfully then complain when they get found out – which is basically what Steve Connor was doing so incompetently when he scribbled his diatribe. What so wonderful about that piece though is that it is such a perfect example of the puffed up, chest thumping, ill-researched drivel published in the name of serious journalism that we have all come to expect and despise.
Even less fortunately for us, science and medicine aren’t the only fictions masquerading as fact in the press. Politics, economics and sport all come in for the same slipshod “never let the facts spoil a good story” attitude. Serious journalists should be ashamed to be associated with it. But the question is, where are the good journalists?

By: TheBiologista

TheBiologista — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 12:06:14 +0000

Doesn’t ANYONE in the mainstream press know about the Streisand Effect?

By: ScienceBlogs Channel : Medicine & Health | BlogCABLE.COM

ScienceBlogs Channel : Medicine & Health | BlogCABLE.COM — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:33:22 +0000

[...] I blogged about the seriously flawed Telegraph article about rape. Now Carl Zimmer has discovered that the newspaper has yanked the article from its site. No explanation, no apology – it’s [...]

By: reflexão sobre o jornalismo científico « ciência na mídia

reflexão sobre o jornalismo científico « ciência na mídia — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 14:49:40 +0000

[...] Científica by trnahas on Julho 11, 2009 Está ótimo o post de ontem de Carl Zimmer (Disappearing The Science News)! É mais uma (boa) reflexão sobre a coexistência, cada vez mais frequente, entre a ciência [...]

By: The Telegraph has second thoughts [bioephemera] | Medical News

The Telegraph has second thoughts [bioephemera] | Medical News — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 09:55:37 +0000

By: Emma

Emma — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 07:09:21 +0000

That’s *not* the text of the original article. Whilst it’s still pretty bad, the orginal was breathtakingly worse. It began with the lines:

“Women who dress provocatively more likely to be raped, claim scientists

” Women who drink alcohol, wear short skirts and are outgoing are more likely to be raped, claim scientists at the University of Leicester.”

Sadly you only have my word for it as I didn’t think the Telegraph would actually send the original down the memory hole…

http://emmalouise99.blogspot.com/2009/06/someone-at-telegraph-is-illiterate.html

By: Cromercrox

Cromercrox — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:48:07 +0000

After Darwinius I refuse to have anything to do with mainstream media. If bloggers want to contact me for an interview or quote about things that appear ina well-known London-based science magazine… Well, you know where to find me.

By: bioephemera

bioephemera — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:05:42 +0000

Is this indeed the original, *original* article? Because Ben Goldacre’s blog said it had been edited since he posted his critique. I’m wondering how many versions of varying offensiveness there are.

By: Amos Zeeberg (Discover Web Editor)

Amos Zeeberg (Discover Web Editor) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:51:10 +0000

This may be a little pedantic, but I’m including the entire original Telegraph article [as re-printed by The Hand Mirror, that blog Ben found] here. Redundancy will keep our data safe[r]!

Women who dress provocatively more likely to be raped, claim scientists
The way women dress, how flirtatious they are and their levels of drunkenness really do have an effect on the likelihood of them being raped, claim scientists.

By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Published: 7:00AM BST 23 Jun 2009

Psychologists found that all three factors had a bearing on how far men were likely to go to take advantage of the opposite sex.

They found that the skimpier the dress and the more flirtatious the woman, the less likely a suitor was to take no for an answer.

But, contrary to popular opinion, alcohol consumption did dampen their ardour with many men claiming that they were put off by a woman who was drunk.

Sophia Shaw at the University of Leicester said that men showed a “surprising” propensity to coerce women into sex, especially those that were considered promiscuous.

“The research seems to show that men are not so much charming women into bed as coercing them,” she said. “I was quite surprised how far ordinary men were prepared to go.”

Miss Shaw and her team, who present their results at the Forensic Psychology Annual conference run by the British Psychological Society, recruited 101 men, aged 18 to 70, from their university and local rugby and football clubs.

First they completed questionnaires regarding their sexual history, personality and aggression to assess how promiscuous they were.

They were then asked to imagine various scenarios involving them meeting a woman in a nightclub and then eventually leaving with her. For each scenario the woman’s dress, drunkenness, flirtatiousness and previous sexual history were altered.

Using a sliding scale of sexual coercion from one to 27 where one was being allowed to enter the women’s house to 27 being rape, they assessed how far men would go before “calling it a night”.

Amazingly many men, especially promiscuous men, admitted they were go to within a point of rape before realising the girl was not interested in sex. That was even though at point 19 she had already said she felt “uncomfortable” and thought things were “going too fast”.

Of the promiscuous men 35 per cent said they would get to level 24, although only five per cent of inexperienced men said they would do the same.

By: Mer

Mer — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:43:11 +0000

Reminds me of a similar study we found a few weeks ago: Disco clothing, female sexual motivation, and relationship status: is she dressed to impress? http://www.ncbirofl.com/2009/07/does-this-outfit-make-me-look-like-i.html

By: Ed Yong

Ed Yong — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:42:31 +0000

Re: Ben unearthing the original – it was only a matter of time. When will disingenuous people learn that you can’t erase history on the Internet?

Far better to not write drivel in the first place, surely?

By: Chad

Chad — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:10:33 +0000

Carl, this is exactly why I tell my parents (who known nothing of science) to not believe a single thing about science they read or hear in the media. Unless, of course, it was written by you.

Carl: You should check my links, too. Eternal vigilance is the price of online journalism.

By: Bad Study of the Week: A Social Life Predisposes Women to Rape | Discoblog | Discover Magazine

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:50:07 +0000

[...] “Worst Science Article of the Week” is more in order. For more discussion of this, see here and [...]