Unlike a rolling stone: Is science really better than journalism at self-correction?

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Rolling Stone’s retraction of an incendiary article about an alleged gang rape on the campus of the University of Virginia certainly deserves a place in the pantheon of legendary journalism screw-ups. It is highly unusual — although not unprecedented — for a news organization to air its dirty laundry so publicly.

One meme that’s emerged from the wreckage is that journalism ought to be more like science, which, it’s thought, is the epitome of a self-correcting system. In a story about the Rolling Stone retraction, for example, the New York Times reported that Nicholas Lemann, former dean of the Columbia Journalism School, teaches his students that the “Journalistic Method” is much like the scientific method: Read more...

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