How I Miss Molly Ivins

Michelle Goldberg, in The American Prospect, tells a story of the Governor of Texas working to assure the execution of a man who appears to have been innocent, defending junk science used in his prosecution against good science presented by those fighting the execution. She writes:

It's lucky for Gov. Rick Perry of Texas that he's not suspected of doing something truly shocking, like having an affair. Instead, it merely seems that he's helped cover up a homicide. Apparently that's not enough to make much of a national splash.

Comment: Junk science costs a lot more lives when political leaders refuse to believe good science on public health issues in favor of the junkiest of science (think about South Africa and HIV), but in forensics the victim is individual and can be known to the public. Forensic junk science thus has special emotional impact. The lack of national public attention to such a travesty is an indictment of the press, and the failures of its mission to inform and instruct the public. If the media were doing its job, the public would throw out the politicians who justify bad decisions by junk science. JAD

Image source: Bill Keaggy