1) Scientific American's Laura Helmuth spread hate on Bluesky, but my posting on X brought accountability for her bigoted comments. She resigned a few days ago.
X is still America's public square.
2) When I saw Helmuth's hateful comments, I posted them on X, expecting nothing to happen.
I've documented several examples of Helmuth's prejudice toward people who think different from her and @sciam ignored this.
3) But Helmuth's Bluesky tweets were grabbed by several other accounts, leading to over 3 million views within 24 hours. Helmuth then posted this hollow apology.
4) I got back from a journalism conference last Thursday and got a call that Helmuth had resigned. Not what I had expected.
Helmuth as a history of political bigotry and this is common in the #scicomm community. She must have felt comfortable making these comments on Bluesky.
5) Several others have pointed to Helmuth's biased political commentary in the past, including @michaelshermer, @VPrasadMDMPH, @carlheneghan, @Evolutionistrue, @R_H_Ebright, @powellAtlantic etc....
An example of what she published.
6) The problem is that NOTHING will be learned by science writers, because they see their job as promoting science, not informing the public.
it's a weird corner of the media, where everyone thinks the same and practices #scicomm not journalism.
7) Here's comments from two science writing professors, praising Helmuth after she was shown the door. One teaches at NYU, the other at MIT.
They see nothing wrong w/ Helmuth's hate, because they share her political views and disdain for the American public.
8) Read more here at @DisInfoChron and please subscribe!
1) Scientific American's Laura Helmuth spread hate on Bluesky, but my posting on X brought accountability for her bigoted comments. She resigned a few days ago.
X is still America's public square. 2) When I saw Helmuth's hateful comments, I posted them on X, expecting nothing to happen.
I've documented several examples of Helmuth's prejudice toward people who think different from her and @sciam ignored this. 3) But Helmuth's Bluesky tweets were grabbed by several other accounts, leading to over 3 million views within 24 hours. Helmuth then posted this hollow apology. 4) I got back from a journalism conference last Thursday and got a call that Helmuth had resigned. Not what I had expected.
Helmuth as a history of political bigotry and this is common in the #scicomm community. She must have felt comfortable making these comments on Bluesky. 5) Several others have pointed to Helmuth's biased political commentary in the past, including @michaelshermer, @VPrasadMDMPH, @carlheneghan, @Evolutionistrue, @R_H_Ebright, @powellAtlantic etc....
An example of what she published. 6) The problem is that NOTHING will be learned by science writers, because they see their job as promoting science, not informing the public.
it's a weird corner of the media, where everyone thinks the same and practices #scicomm not journalism. 7) Here's comments from two science writing professors, praising Helmuth after she was shown the door. One teaches at NYU, the other at MIT.
They see nothing wrong w/ Helmuth's hate, because they share her political views and disdain for the American public. 8) Read more here at @DisInfoChron and please subscribe!
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