According to the author, the media is deliberately feeding us misleading, deceptive, and unreliable scientific information. Journalists, after all, are typically humanities graduates with little understanding of science, so they turn science into a parody and depict scientists as all-powerful, unquestionable, and overly authoritarian.
The so-called scientific information we read in the media is often bizarre, outlandish, or unnecessarily alarming. One example is psychologist Cliff Arnall’s claim that the third Monday of January is the ‘most miserable day of the year’, and that we are all more depressed on this day than any other. His statements were first released in England, but were quickly picked up by the media in the rest of the world, and are repeated in the press every year. According to the author, however, Arnall’s claims are completely unfounded, and have been used as a marketing strategy by a major communications agency. Not many people know, in fact, that Arnall’s statements were first broadcast on Sky Travel, a travel website that hired Arnall to fabricate this massive hoax. The end of January is one of the most popular times for people to book a holiday, so this was the perfect moment to release the information. As marketing ploys go, it was a resounding success.
This is just one of many cases in which science is debased by wannabe experts, and bent to serve economic and commercial interests, resulting in dangerous and inaccurate news stories about our health.
