We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Commentary: Ignorance as Bias: Radiolab, Yellow Rain, and “The Fact of the Matter”.
- Authors
Hillmer, Paul; Yang, Mary Ann
- Abstract
In 2012 the National Public Radio show “Radiolab” released a podcast (later broadcast on air) essentially asserting that Hmong victims of a suspected chemical agent known as “yellow rain” were ignorant of their surroundings and the facts, and were merely victims of exposure, dysentery, tainted water, and other natural causes. Relying heavily on the work of Dr. Matthew Meselson, Dr. Thomas Seeley, and former CIA officer Merle Pribbenow, Radiolab asserted that Hmong victims mistook bee droppings, defecated en masse from flying Asian honey bees, as “yellow rain.” They brought their foregone conclusions to an interview with Eng Yang, a self-described yellow rain survivor, and his niece, memoirist Kao Kalia Yang, who served as translator. The interview went horribly wrong when their dogged belief in the “bee dung hypothesis” was met with stiff and ultimately impassioned opposition. Radiolab’s confirmation bias led them to dismiss contradictory scientific evidence and mislead their audience. While the authors remain agnostic about the potential use of yellow rain in Southeast Asia, they believe the evidence shows that further study is needed before a final conclusion can be reached.
- Subjects
ASIA; RADIO broadcasting; RADIO frequency allocation; RADIO broadcasting -- Social aspects; FAKE news; RADIO frequency modulation
- Publication
Hmong Studies Journal, 2017, Vol 18, p1
- ISSN
1091-1774
- Publication type
Article