Katie Couric: Sick Of Sexual Science

I don’t watch much broadcast television, so I’d have missed this gem if not for Dr. Marty Klein, who recounts this dubious gem in a post called Beware Popular Lies About Sex:

Katie Couric recently embarrassed herself during an interview with psychologist David Ley about pornography. When he calmly described to her what a range of scientific studies say about porn’s effects on behavior and our brain — that it’s minimal — Couric raised her voice, rolled her eyes, and said she was sick of science. “Can’t we use some common sense here?”

Actually, no. Common sense clearly tells us that the Earth is flat. Want some science with that, Ma’am?

In contrast, Couric believed the fact-less, emotional rantings of her other guest — because they fit Couric’s existing beliefs. Like all morning TV hosts, her job is to say bland things, not to think.

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Sex “Research” Stories That Aren’t

Way back in 2002 when I started this sex blog, I imagined that many of my posts might point to online news stories about sex. There weren’t so many sex blogs back then, and online writing about sex from “mainstream” journalists was still rare enough to be notable.

What I quickly discovered, though, was that these stories were generally crap, especially when they pretended, badly, to be based on “the latest research”. Scientists usually don’t do sex well, and reporters usually don’t do science well, so a reporter’s view of sex research usually turns out to be hideous insulting nonsense and tripe. (Exceptions do happen. But man, you gotta dig for ’em.)

Pretty soon, it got to the point where I don’t even read journalism about sexual science. The noise level is too high; it’s all spam and no eggs.

Therefore I am amused to discover two articles in two days that discuss the whys and wherefores when it comes to bad reporting about bad sex research. This morning it was Thomas Roche blogging at Violet Blue’s Tiny Nibbles; yesterday it was How To Spot an Internet Sex Research Hoax at The Sexademic.

If you still read “Newest Research about Sex Reveals…” stories, you’ll want to read these, too.