Background:

Many friends have stopped reading or watching what is presented as “news”, as the term “infotainment” more accurately describes the news media now.  It appears to aim at creating sensationalist entertainment,  or pushing a particular political view, rather than accurately report relevant information.

For example, almost 20 years ago I read an article from an overseas journal which stated that a New York Times reporter had been sacked after other newspapers showed he had fabricated his stories, and he defended himself by saying that was what he learnt from his fellow reporters – it’s what they all did!  When I spoke to people here in Australia about it, people didn’t believe me, as our news media chose not to report it.  (Jayson Blair resigned from The New York Times in May 2003 in the wake of the discovery of fabrication.)

The son of a friend regularly cites what is reported in the popular press as “science” to his dad; he trusts his outlook for life on Scientism.  But the nature of what is reported as scientific research has changed during my lifetime.

In my youth, I learnt that science papers were subject to rigorous peer review before being published, and findings would not be generally accepted until the results had been independently replicated by others.  About 20 years ago, I became aware that had all changed, rigorous validation no longer applied.

I recently read an article reporting a “replication crisis” in science.  In 2005, John Ioannidis of Stanford University published a paper showing that most published research findings are false!  In 2016 a survey by Nature of 1,576 researchers found that more than 70 per cent had tried and failed to replicate experimental results from other labs but that journals had proved reluctant to publish such negative studies.

This trend is widespread in many areas; it extends to business organisations where reliability is crucially important, such as banks and airlines.

If people give more attention to appearances than reality, of seeming to do the “right thing” rather than knowing and actually doing it, then who can we rely upon?

Question:

Who can we trust?