SIRC Media Watch Archive
Comment and Opinion – January 2003

The New Sensationalist. What has happened to the New Scientist? It has featured prominently on our Worthwhile Links page for a number of years. We describe it as "Simply the best science site there is." The current issue, however, leads us to experience a feeling not dissimilar to that of being let down by an old and trusted friend. In place of defence of the scientific enterprise that NS has traditionally championed we find a lurid, sensational cover more typical of Hello magazine or the red top tabloids – Can Fast Food Alter Your Brain in the Same Was as Tobacco and Heroin? – a largely rhetorical question since we are urged to believe that it clearly can. Full article