The dangers of journalism

The Columbia Journalism Review notes that a problem that has plagued many types of journalism such as health and school coverage is now afflicting environmental journalism—touting the latest new thing without knowing whether it does what it says.

“We binge on hype about the latest magic-box technology until it fails to deliver on the hype, much of which we’ve fueled in a positive feedback cycle. … This happened during the internet boom, when hype catapulted startups to meteoric initial public offerings and gazillion-dollar market capitalizations on balance sheets made of sand. … It’s happening again in the clean-tech arena, in which many startups are promising to rescue the planet and tame climate change with promising but untested technologies and business plans,” wrote CJR’s Susan Moran, reporting on comments made by several critics of green reporting, including environmental reporters themselves.