Science

Anti-science bullshit of 2014

Mother Jones magazine tallies some of the worst anti-science bullshit of 2014: anti-vaccination scares, political interference with basic research, the effort to redefine certain forms of birth control as abortion, the persistence of creationism (or, if you prefer, “intelligent design”), continuing climate change denial (Fox News ought to at least be able to come up with more reputable deniers than Donald Trump) and, of course, Ebola hysteria.

Deservedly, the fact-checking website PolitiFact.com presented its not-so-coveted 2014 Lie of the Year Award to the exaggerations and fear-mongering about Ebola. (In 2013, just as deservedly, PolitiFact.com gave the award to President Obama’s foolish promise that under the Affordable Care Act, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.”)

If there were an award for Truth-Teller of the Year, I would give it to Fox News’s Shepard Smith, who kept his head about Ebola when most of his colleagues were losing theirs.