Open Letter to the NY Times #2
to letters@nytimes.com
It is disheartening to see Benedict Carey's ("Criticism of a Gender Theory, and a Scientist Under Siege", August 21st) ongoing hero-worship of Dr. Bailey in the Health section of the Times. Carey’s portrayal of Dr. Bailey as a martyr to political correctness borders on propaganda.
Dr. Bailey is not the only researcher targeted by special interest groups. For example, Dr. Joanna Kempner, a researcher at Princeton University, recently presented preliminary results of her paper "Erections, Mounting and AIDS: Incestuous Gay Monkey Sex (or seven words you can’t write in your NIH grant)" at the August meeting of the American Sociological Association. Kempner’s study focused on 162 researchers targeted by the Traditional Values Coalition, but her work was not profiled in the Times, but only in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Scientific integrity must not be protected at the expense of journalistic integrity.
Danforth Nicholas
The Difference Blog
It is disheartening to see Benedict Carey's ("Criticism of a Gender Theory, and a Scientist Under Siege", August 21st) ongoing hero-worship of Dr. Bailey in the Health section of the Times. Carey’s portrayal of Dr. Bailey as a martyr to political correctness borders on propaganda.
Dr. Bailey is not the only researcher targeted by special interest groups. For example, Dr. Joanna Kempner, a researcher at Princeton University, recently presented preliminary results of her paper "Erections, Mounting and AIDS: Incestuous Gay Monkey Sex (or seven words you can’t write in your NIH grant)" at the August meeting of the American Sociological Association. Kempner’s study focused on 162 researchers targeted by the Traditional Values Coalition, but her work was not profiled in the Times, but only in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Scientific integrity must not be protected at the expense of journalistic integrity.
Danforth Nicholas
The Difference Blog