Miller Henry I
The Hoover Institution, Stanford University, CA 94305-6010, U.S.A.
GM Crops. 2010 Mar-Apr;1(2):59-61. doi: 10.4161/gmcr.1.2.10861.
The American public's assessment of the accuracy of news stories is now at its lowest level in more than two decades, and their views of media bias and independence now match previous lows, according to a September 2009 Pew Research Center survey. Only 29% of Americans say that news organizations usually get the facts right, while 63% say that news stories often are inaccurate. Although there are no similar survey data for "peer-reviewed journals" -- which submit articles to review by independent experts before they are accepted for publication and which have long been considered science's "gold standard" - it is not uncommon for articles that are egregiously, obviously flawed to find their way into prominent international scientific publications. If the articles have policy implications, misinformation is quickly and widely propagated; feeds the propagandizing of opportunistic, anti-technology activists, and can have dire consequences.
根据皮尤研究中心2009年9月的一项调查，美国公众对新闻报道准确性的评估目前处于二十多年来的最低水平，他们对媒体偏见和独立性的看法现在也与之前的低点持平。只有29%的美国人表示新闻机构通常能掌握事实，而63%的人表示新闻报道常常不准确。虽然没有针对“同行评审期刊”的类似调查数据（同行评审期刊在文章被接受发表前会提交给独立专家进行评审，长期以来一直被视为科学界的“黄金标准”），但存在严重明显缺陷的文章得以进入著名国际科学出版物的情况并不罕见。如果这些文章具有政策影响，错误信息会迅速广泛传播；助长机会主义、反技术活动家的宣传，可能会产生可怕的后果。
