An additional 29 percent characterized the threat as suspected, whereas only 9 percent portrayed the threat as unlikely. The judgements of scientists quoted in the media were then compared with the results of a March 1997 survey of a stratified random sample of 300 scientists drawn from American Men and Women of Science , which provided a list of 8215 scientists of distinction selected from disciplines pertinent to the task of evaluating xenoestrogens. The contrast in striking. Media coverage of xenoestrogens conveys a certainty of danger that is substantially at variance with representative scientific opinion. It is a matter of concern, with respect to the integrity of science and public policy, that research has become enmeshed in a media process so poorly grounded in scientific understanding.
Media distorts scientific judgment of risk from environmental estrogens.
Roper Center for Public Opinion Research-University of Connecticut, 1997.