On 25/07/07, David Goodman dgoodmanny@gmail.com wrote:
Journals are professionals, with specialized training and supervised experience. They are taught how to work with things they do not necessarily understand--in a sense, the very profession is the the ability to go in and make sense out of something that is not understood. Some but not many WP editors have that skill also. A very few as actual journalists, a few from related training (such as we librarians), some from innate ability, but generally from experience and attention.
That's the theory. Go and read a few science articles in mainstream media and you'll soon realise that in practice things are very different. Journalists think they can write about things they don't understand and are generally wrong. Sound familiar?