[contrarian1234]

This is why there is a global crisis of confidence in science. B/c science is constantly portrayed as a tool to push agendas and policies (that are maybe even necessary) and not an exploration of facts. It's done so blatantly and transparently that anyone with a skeptical mind is just turned off by the whole thing

This isn't an indictment of science or scientists, but of science reporting. If the story is climate-change related then it's reported. If it's not, then they find some climate change related angle. If they can't then the story is usually dropped.

[cropcirclbureau]

Science journalism has a lot of issues but I think those problems are across journalism and not especially unique to science. Over referencing familiar narratives, click bait headlines, piss poor editing...you'll find this in all types of news out there.

Should science journalist hold themselves to a better, special standard? True. Especially with the age old war that's waged on it by those who hold power through selling incredibly unscientific world views. But I think the overt actions these forces are more to blame than poor science journalism. People don't like inconvenient facts, people will forever be victims to a voice making a problem go away by denying the problem even exists.

[graemep]

I do not think scientists are entirely blame free, and institutions certainly share part of the blame. University PR departments frequently spin stuff to get attention from journalists (most commonly everything is a huge breakthrough, preferably related to an issue already in the news).

My guess is that the underlying issue is funding.

I also think there are often communication failures from many scientists - for example failing to distinguish between personal opinion, consensus opinion, and well proven things.

On top of that, of course, individual scientists are still fallible and biased like any human being, especially about things they feel strongly about.

A good journalist would speak to multiple people in the field with different opinions, ask them questions like how well proven a theory actually is, etc. Pity they are not more common!