“Toxic” Journalism & Phthalates

“Bumbling Coverage on Phthalates Underscores How Activist Journalism Endangers ‘Public Science’” by Jon Entine.
Last year, campaigning journalist Susan Freinkel noted that she wrote her anti-chemical book, Plastics: A Toxic Love Story, because she was shocked about how much modern society relied on plastics. In her mind, “synthetic materials” equated with poor health, pollution and western gluttony. Freinkel’s perspective reflects a familiar and distressing trope in science journalism. Rather than contextualize an issue, activist reporters often dramatize it.Read the full article on Science 2.0.