GMO Free News: 'False Equivalency' Infects Discover Magazine's Questionable Reporting On GMOs

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

'False Equivalency' Infects Discover Magazine's Questionable Reporting On GMOs - Forbes

'False Equivalency' Infects Discover Magazine's Questionable Reporting On GMOs - Forbes

Consider the case of Discover magazine, which features a troubling cover story on the anti-agricultural biotechnology movement in its April issue. Simply said, Discover gives unwarranted weight to the views of anti-GM activists and in the process raises questions about the ability of even the most credible science publications to avoid the perils of false balance when covering agricultural biotech.

Discover carries two reports: the cover piece profiles the GMO debate in Europe and a sidebar looks at what is happening in the U.S. Both set off shocked reactions in the Twittersphere from scientists and the science-minded.

As Keith Kloor pointed out in a sharply worded Collide-A-Scape blog (coincidentally hosted by the Discover website, where he is a respected contributor), the articles offer up a laundry list of familiar criticisms: biotech crops are untested; they hasten environmental degradation; they result in unstoppable superweeds; they pose health threats; they increase ‘dangerous’ pesticide usage; they could unleash unpredictable Frankenstein-like creatures into the world ecosystem; and so on.

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