This morning on Twitter the estimable Carl Zimmer stated that I had "reported" on the recent paper on European skin pigmentation evolution. I wondered, wait, am I a reporter? I don't really know, and this really is rooted in the "am I a journalist" thread. I'm starting to get worn down by those who claim I am a journalist. My main issue is that once you're pegged as a journalist, you're held to journalistic standards. So, for example, people might demand that I selectively misquote and misrepresent the opinions of others, because I might alienate readership by telling them what I think, instead of using mouthpieces who I don't even bother depicting with any accuracy. I'm only half-kidding here. I've had great experiences with journalists, and not so great experiences. I really, really, hate it when people go fishing for quotes to fit their story arc. In regards to papers, I don't exactly take the tack of someone like Ed Yong or Dave Munger. I'm just a guy offering my own unvarnished opinions, and the reality is what I do "on the blog" intersects strongly with the way I talk and behave in "real life." If this blog is journalism than a huge portion of my time chilling with my boys is journalism And, a substantial proportion of the posts here emerge directly from reader questions. Oh, and sometimes I tell readers what I really think of them, which is often not much. All of this just doesn't seem right to me as journalism. So I don't feel it is. Randall Parker suggests a new word, "rifting." Though that got me to thinking: a lot of what I do is "sifting." The content of others, but also my own thoughts.
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