Combatting truth decayQ&A with Seth Mnookin on the fallacy of “both sides” journalism
Seth Mnookin is a professor of science writing, director of the Graduate Program in Science Writing, and director of the MIT Communications Forum. In his most recent book, The Panic Virus: The True Story Behind the Vaccine-Autism Controversy, which won the Science in Society Award, Mnookin tackles a fundamental question: How do we decide what the truth is? Mnookin recently spoke about the state of journalism in an era when public trust is threatened by cries of “fake news” from political partisans aiming to discredit unflattering stories and to diminish the efficacy of the free press. “We’ve seen too many journalists confuse not taking sides with not calling out liars and frauds,” Mnookin says.
A longtime journalist and science writer, Seth Mnookin is a professor of science writing, director of the Graduate Program in Science Writing, and director of the MIT Communications Forum. In his most recent book, The Panic Virus: The True Story Behind the Vaccine-Autism Controversy, which won the Science in Society Award, Mnookin tackles a fundamental question: How do we decide what the truth is? MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) Communications spoke with Mnookin recently about the state of journalism in an era when public trust is threatened by cries of “fake news” from political partisans aiming to discredit unflattering stories and to diminish the efficacy of the free press.
SHASS Communications: Your most recent book, The Panic Virus, examines what happened when science journalists led the public astray on the issue of vaccinations. What changes have there been in the way the issue has been reported since the book was published?
Seth Mnookin: In the nine months before my book came out in early 2011, the fraudulent 1998 study that launched the unfounded fears that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine was linked to autism was retracted and the lead author lost his medical license. Those factors, along with my book, the work by other journalists, and the countless studies that showed there was no link between the MMR vaccine and autism helped put an end to the “on the one hand, on the other hand” reporting that had plagued so much of the journalism on the issue for so long.
Since then we’ve seen the issue occasionally creep back into the news — typically when a politician (Michelle Bachman in late 2011, Donald Trump more recently) makes an outrageous and inaccurate claim at a debate or press conference — but for the most part, reporting on this topic has been much improved.
