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Will Stossel Endorse Phony " Lynxgate " Story?

 

August 2, 2002

 

According to his e-mail newsletter and a commentary on the ABC website,

reporter John Stossel will likely report a bogus account of an important

environmental story on ABC's 20/20 program tonight.

 

In his e-mail preview, Stossel claims that wildlife biologists tried to

falsify data in order to show that Canadian lynx, a threatened species,

were in southern Washington. " This is a frightening prospect for people

who like using the land, " Stossel's e-mail reports, since " finding a

threatened species can set in motion a series of events that can wreck

your life if you're a rancher or farmer or just someone who wants to drive

in the woods. "

 

Stossel is enthusiastic about what he thinks happened next: " That didn't

happen this time, because it turned out the government's biologist were

caught cheating! The lynx hair sent to the lab came from a lynx that

lives in a cage, miles away from where the biologists claimed they found

the hair. "

 

This story, heavily promoted last year by the conservative Washington

Times, has long been debunked. Biologists had sent the lab samples of

known Canadian lynx and bobcat hair, hoping to check whether the testing

process could accurately identify them. As reported in FAIR's magazine

Extra! (5-6/02), " The biologists were skeptical that the lab would produce

accurate results; they were suspicious of test results, ironically enough,

because another lab had found more lynx than the biologists thought was

likely. "

 

Such blind testing is common in research studies, but was not authorized

in this particular project, so the researchers were disciplined by being

removed from the study. The captive-lynx samples could not have been used

to falsify the presence of lynx anywhere, because the actual source of the

fur was plainly noted in the researchers' lab books, which are the

official record of the study.

 

Stossel is aware of their explanation, but dismisses it, quoting a guest

who compares them to bank robbers who claim they were going to return the

money the next day. But contrary to the notion that the scientists were

" caught " sending in control samples, the Seattle Times reported last

December (12/30/01) that " several told their supervisors about it, and one

notified the lab itself. "

 

Accusations that the scientists were attempting to perpetrate a fraud have

been repeatedly investigated, by groups and agencies ranging from the

Washington State Senate to the General Accounting Office. No one has

turned up any evidence that there was any attempt to deceive involved.

 

Stossel says of the lynx story, " It makes me wonder what other parts of

their science we don't know the truth about. " In fact, the truth about

the control samples has been known for months, yet Stossel still is

putting forward the discredited allegations of " cheating. " ABC has been

put on notice that we expect a higher standard of journalism from the

network.

 

 

CONTACT:

ABC News

netaudr

 

20/20

2020

 

John Stossel

stossel

 

For more background, see " The Washington Times' Hair-Raising Tall Tale, "

http://www.fair.org/extra/0205/lynxgate.html

 

To find out more about Stossel's report, see:

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/DailyNews/GMAB_lynx_020802.html

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