Can Science Help Tell Us What Is True And What Is False?

War Is Peace: Can Science Fight Media Disinformation? -- Scientific American

In the 24/7 Internet world, people make lots of claims. Science provides a guide for testing them.

When I saw the statement repeated online that theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking of the University of Cambridge would be dead by now if he lived in the U.K. and had to depend on the National Health Service (he, of course, is alive and working in the U.K., where he always has), I reflected on something I had written a dozen years ago, in one of my first published commentaries:

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My Comment: As a media junkie for 30 years I have learned one simple truth .... what is true to someone is not true to someone else .... and there is nothing that anyone can do to change this simple truth.

For this blog, I try my best to bring opposing points of view. I do this by linking to posts from news sites and bloggers from other countries .... even those that I am in complete disagreement with and with what they are reporting on.

But will science help in telling me on what is true and not .... I doubt it. News is rarely a subject that is black and white .... it (in fact) has many shades and much of the reporting that we are now witnessed to is a reflection of that bias. Is this a bad thing .... from my point of view I will have to say no. If anything, the beauty of the internet and 24 hour cable news is that this bias is now exposed for all to see.