Actual Research in the NYT
After the New York Times gave plenty of coverage to the American Federation of Teachers' pick-on-charter-schools study last week, a group of researchers placed an ad in the paper pointing out the AFT's and NYT's research shortcomings. An excerpt from the ad:
The news media has an obligation to assess carefully any research sponsored by interest groups engaged in policy debates. Such studies need to be vetted by independent scholars, as is commonly done in coverage of research on the biological and physical sciences.
Ouch. The ad was signed by 29 researchers from universities all over the nation, one Manhattan Institute scholar and one Brookings scholar. The group can hardly be called part of the vast right-wing conspiracy. Between these guys and Policy Weblog, we have hope for the media, right? Right?
