GhostofAlyeska says he was "simply curious who Fox News' science reporters are. I wanted to know what kind of scientific backgrounds they might have."
Here's what he found:
NPR's science correspondents include:
-
Shankar Vedantam, who has been honored by the American Public Health Association, is the author of The Hidden Brain: How our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars and Save Our Lives, and participated in the 2005 Templeton-Cambridge Fellowship on Science and Religion, the 2003-2004 World Health Organization Journalism Fellowship, and the 2002-2003 Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellowship.
-
Joe Palca, who worked as an editor for Nature, a senior correspondent for Science Magazine, and a science writer in residence at the Huntington Library, and has won the National Academies Communications Award, the Science-in-Society Award of the National Association of Science Writers, the American Chemical Society James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public, the American Association for the Advancement of Science Journalism Prize, and the Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Writing. Palca holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
-
Rob Stein, who worked at The Washington Post for 16 years, first as the newspaper's science editor and then as a national health reporter. He's also been a science reporter for United Press International (UPI) in Boston and the science editor of the international wire service in Washington. He completed a program in science and religion at the University of Cambridge, and a summer science writer's workshop at the Marine Biological Laboratory, and has been honored by the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Association of Health Care Journalists.
-
Geoff Brumfiel, who was a senior reporter for Nature Magazine, and was the 2013 winner of the Association of British Science Writers award. He graduated from Grinnell College with a BA double degree in physics and English, and earned his Masters in science writing from Johns Hopkins University.
-
And of course, there's Ira Flatow, host of Science Friday, which is carried on many NPR stations.
I wanted to see how Fox News' science writers compared, so I went back over scores of their science articles, starting with the most recent, to identify and research the various authors. Here's what I found:
-
Arden Dier, Evann Gastaldo, John Johnson, Kate Seamons, Matt Cantor, Neal Colgrass, and Rob Quinn, who all moonlight for Newser.com, a "lowest bottom-feeder" (according to Salon) news aggregation website created by Michael Wolff, author of The Man Who Owns the News, a biography of Rupert Murdoch.
-
Walt Bonner, who previously wrote for World Wrestling Entertainment and Fangoria magazine.
-
Jenn Gidman, a "creative editor, writer, blogger, and content manager". Her specialties include, "social media analysis", "blogging about entertainment", "parenting", and "branding/marketing".
-
Brian Mastroianni, who received a journalism degree "with a concentration in arts and culture reporting". Skills and interests: "basic video shooting", "digital editing", "HTML and web page design", "newspaper/magazine page design", and "on-camera reporting".
-
Kyle Rothenberg, whose degrees are in telecommunications and mass communication. Work experience: camera operator, news intern, and host.
-
John Hagee, the ultra right-wing megachurch leader, who in March 2015 wrote about so-called "blood moon prohecy" for Fox News, which they categorize under "Science > Moon".
-
Aalia Shaheed, whose degrees are in Spanish language and literature, and broadcast journalism. Her specialties are "video production, editing, and live shots."
-
Many of their other science articles are then taken from sites run by Purch, which is a "rapidly growing, constantly evolving digital content and services company that helps millions of people make smarter purchases."
[via]
