While I’ve sometimes questioned your overall commitment to education, your columnists and editorials frequently stress the importance of education and how important it is to us as individuals, a community, and a country. If that’s truly how you feel, then I have a suggestion for you – please stop printing horoscopes.
Clearly over the last few years your paper has gotten physically smaller. As the Internet and Craigslist have bit into your revenue, you’ve had to make hard decisions about what stays and what goes, and I assume you painfully agonize over what gets printed in the limited amount of space you have left for articles. Yet in both Saturday and Sunday’s paper you devoted about 260 square centimeters to horoscopes. (In comparison, you devoted almost exactly the same amount of space in Saturday’s paper to the horrific school shooting in Brazil and considerably less to the story about the Juno spacecraft.) This prominent endorsement of pseudoscience seems to be at odds with your stance on the importance of education.
Now I know some people will argue that this is political correctness run amuck, that horoscopes are simply a form of entertainment and therefore should be left alone. I could perhaps even agree with those folks except for one small problem, survey (pdf) after survey show that about one-fourth of Americans believe in Astrology.
One. Fourth.
To be effective citizens, Americans need to understand what science is – and what it isn’t. By continuing to use your valuable and increasingly limited newsprint space to print horoscopes, you are enabling (and, in fact, encouraging) a belief in pseudoscience and are helping create a less scientifically literate population. This needs to stop.
So here’s my proposal. Stop printing horoscopes each day in your paper and instead devote that 260 square centimeters to science. Each day you could run an article looking at the science behind the headlines. (Surely there’s no shortage of material: earthquakes, tsunamis, climate change, energy production, energy consumption, health care – to name just a few.) Now, I know that 260 square centimeters is not really enough to explain such complex issues, but it is enough to write an introduction to the issue, and then at the end of the article you could link to your website which could take a more in-depth look at the issue (perhaps including multimedia and links to other sources). You would be modeling for our students the importance of science and what lifelong learning looks like.
Dan Haley’s editorial in Sunday’s paper said, in relation to a different topic,
We consider it part of our responsibility, part of the newspaper being a good citizen.Shouldn’t supporting a scientifically literate population be part of your responsibility to the citizens of Colorado as well?
Just guessing, but if 1 in 4 believe in horoscopes, maybe the paper wants it as it generates readers & revenue.
ReplyDeleteMary Ann - Yep. But lots of things generate revenue. That doesn't make it right.
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Karl Fisch –
ReplyDeleteIn your article “Dear Denver Post: No More Horoscopes”, I strongly agree with your negative feelings towards the horoscopes in the Denver Post news paper, and I support your idea for replacing this portion of the paper with science articles. Your statistic about one fourth of Americans actually believing in Astrology shocked me and made it even more evident to me that horoscopes need to be replaced by articles that are logical and supported by science. Isn’t the purpose of the paper to educate readers? I could care less if people looked at horoscopes, but to take away newspaper reader’s source of knowledge and replacing it with garbage makes me slightly angry. If people know more about America’s and the world’s problems, then people would be more knowledgeable about the issues and more inclined to help fix the problems. In the future, I hope to see this change made to not only improve the newspaper but also enhance the knowledge of its readers.
I wouldn't know what a horoscope was if it weren't for reading them, stuck next to the comics in the Rocky Mountain News of my youth. "What's this," I wondered. So I learned, "I'm an Aquarius" and I read them when I'd finish the cartoons and they were pretty much always the same and obviously wrong. Right on, dude. Too bad they won't listen.
ReplyDeleteBravo, Bravo, Karl. Great post.
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly, although I think that the quality of newspaper science writing often leaves quite a bit to be desired. Nevertheless, I think that the resurgence of nearly eradicated diseases like whooping cough in increasingly less vaccinated populations shows that pseudoscience can have real and dangerous consequences.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great article that explains how horoscopes "work," and presents the psychological trickery in a really accessible way.
If anyone is interested in learning for themselves how similar horoscopes can be, here is an excellent and attractively presented data set on the subject that examines over 22,000 horoscopes.
Personally I really don't see the harm in printing horoscopes in a paper like the Denver Post. The Post appeals to a large group of people for a large number of reasons and one of those reasons in undoubtedly entertainment. The horoscopes may not mean anything to you but many people find them to be at least interesting and they are also something that has been around for a long time and is traditional for many papers and magazines. Though I would agree that more space should be dedicated to important world events I don't really understand the harm if keeping the horoscopes.
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Fisch-
ReplyDeleteYour post, “Denver Post: No More Horoscopes,” receives my full-backed agreement. As a fairly large and powerful news outlet, the Denver Post has a responsibility to inform citizens on key events and speculation. As Mr. Fisch stated, the Denver Post dedicated 260 square centimeters to horoscopes. I agree that this space should be replaced by topics that actually benefit society, for example science. When I read that one out of four Americans believe in Astrology, it definitely shocked me. As clearly shown, the Denver Post’s main focus is profit (like many organizations) so then again, maybe it really isn’t surprising that the Denver Post adds things like horoscopes to their newspapers, rather than “dull” science. The majority of us agree that the Denver Post should do what is right, as Mr. Fisch pushes, but would the Denver Post really risk profit in order to do what is right?
Mr. Fisch,
ReplyDeleteI am a student of Dr. Strange's EDM 310 class at the University of South Alabama and was assigned to read and post a comment on your blog. I agree with your stance on the horoscopes being posted in the newspaper, to a degree. I mean, like you said, 3/4 of the population see them as nothing more than entertainment and that space that has up to now been taken up by it could be used for educational purposes, like something that is actually scientific. But, don't newspapers also serve to entertain? Yes, they provide news and should therefore be educational in some aspect, but there are also the sections of the paper that are there for entertainment and those are some that many people look forward to - horoscopes, book/movie reviews, lifestyle sections, sports, etc. Now, granted, I do not know a lot about the Denver Post, but if it is like a regular newspaper with all of those other entertainment aspects, why not keep the horoscopes? I'm sure that they generate revenue for the paper and provide some with entertainment.
Dear Mr. Karl Fisch,
ReplyDeleteI read your article, "Dear Denver Post: No More Horoscopes" , and i agree on what you are saying. I think that the horoscopes are pointless, and are taking up space that could be used for more educational, and important information. If people new about news from around the world, like science, i think that our society would be much more educated and aware of what is happening in the world around them. But instead the news paper is using the space for horoscopes. This makes me question what the purpose of the news paper is for. I hope that the Denver Post will replace the horoscopes with more important articles.
Dear Mr.Fisch
ReplyDeleteI read your article “Dear Denver Post: No More Horoscopes” and I disagree, although I do not personally believe in Horoscopes I still feel that the Denver Post should not change it. I think they should keep it in the Denver Post for three reasons, first one fourth of the population is a decent portion of the population, more people probably read Horoscopes then just that one fourth, and the Denver Post is built to make money. One fourth is a minority but that doesn’t mean that is not a lot of people. America’s population is three hundred million give or take one fourth of that is 75,000,000 people, what I am trying to say is that one fourth is not a small portion when we talk about people. Another reason is that even though one fourth of people believe horoscopes don’t mean one fourth of people read horoscopes. So there might be a larger amount of people who enjoy the horoscopes. The Denver Post goal is to make money not to educate; we live in America that’s just the name of the game. And the fact is that horoscopes have been around for a long time so they must be popular and making money or newspapers would not include them. Maybe one day somebody will open up the news paper to read the horoscopes and something about a breakthrough in wind energy will catch their eye. That is just another aspect to consider.
Jon D
Oh and right after I read your article I read my first horoscope kinda ironic “ others make demands, and you need to make a statement about what you think….”
Thanks for the comments everyone.
ReplyDeleteLet me just reiterate what I said in the original post, if everyone agreed horoscopes were just entertainment and they were marked as such, I would be okay with it. The problem is that too many people do believe in them, and there is no indication in the Post that they are meant as entertainment.
I find the argument suggesting it’s okay for the Post to print horoscopes because it allows them to make more money astonishing. That argument is basically saying it’s okay for a newspaper to knowingly print incorrect information if it brings in more profit – is that really the argument you want to make?
Then there’s jond’s argument that since one fourth of Americans believe in horoscopes we should print them. Well, one of those survey’s I linked to above also indicates that 42% believe in ghosts, 32% believe in UFO’s, and 23% believe in witches. Would you be okay with columns devoted to each of those topics in the newspaper each day? Perhaps a ‘Wicca of the Week’ column? And, of course, a significant number of Americans are racist, so perhaps a daily column from the Ku Klux Klan would be okay.
As Ben pointed out in his comments, this lack of scientific literacy and rational thinking has very real effects, ranging from folks refusing to vaccinate their children to politicians ignoring the best scientific evidence we have when making public policy decisions. The Denver Post themselves, like pretty much all serious news publications, indicate they have a responsibility to the public – I’m just asking them to live up to that responsibility.
Dear Mr. Karl Fisch –
ReplyDeleteIn your article “Dear Denver Post: No More Horoscopes”, I agree with your feelings towards the horoscopes in the Denver Post news paper, and I agree with your idea for replacing this portion of the paper with science articles. Your statistic about one fourth of Americans actually believing in Astrology made it even more evident to me that horoscopes need to be replaced by articles that are logical and supported by science. If people know more about America’s and the world’s problems, then people would be more knowledgeable about the issues and more inclined to help fix the problems. In the future, I hope to see this change made to not only improve the newspaper but also enhance the knowledge of its readers.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Fisch,
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your blog post Dear Denver Post: No More Horoscopes, I partially agree with your position on the situation of the Denver Post putting to many horoscopes in the newspaper. Why I disagree to some extent is because of that one- fourth of the population that believes in horoscopes. The newspaper is obviously trying to increase their income so they might have to put a few things in the paper that will grab the attention of someone who doesn’t necessarily like the newspaper for news, rather for the entertainment. For the most part I agree with your argument about the Denver Post not dedicating enough space of their paper to educational information because it helps people acquire more knowledge about things that are happening around the world. If more articles in the paper were used for learning purposes, then people will gain from this information and it may help them with what the do in life whether that person be a student, a teacher, a doctor, an athlete, or an average, regular person, they could benefit from learning a few facts. Education should be the main goal of the Denver Post but it wouldn’t hurt to assign a little part of the paper for entertainment.
Connor B
Dear Mr. Karl Fisch,
ReplyDeleteIn your blog post "No More Horoscopes" http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2011/04/dear-denver-post-no-more-horoscopes.html I agree with your opinion that there should not be horoscopes in the Denver newspaper. I also think that horoscopes are pointless in the newspaper because you can just look them up online or on facebook. The amount of places that you can look up horoscopes on the internet is so great, that they're not neccesary in the newspaper which has limited space. Also I agree with your statment that you can put more interesting news in the 260 square cm space that the horoscopes take up, because the newspaper already has a lot of entertaining aticles. Next, instead of seeing horoscopes i would rather be reading about important news that is happening in my city.
Dear Mr.fisch,
ReplyDeleteAlthough I can see the points you makr toward education and the responsibility of a newspaper like the Denver Post (now the only real newspaper in Colorado) to educate its people with pure fact and to keep out as much bias as possible. However one of the big reasons why the newspaper needs to keep the bias out of its news is so people can make their own opinions on important issues based on Pure facts. And so Horoscopes not being an accepted true science, it seems that I made your point for you just now, but I believe in quite the opposite. This is due to the fact that those who read the paper know thats there is going to be things like bias in the paper, its humans writing it after all, and theres always debates on bias in the news and what political side t.v staions lean etc. And so I see no problem with Horoscopes in the news paper, because people can make their own decesions reagardless of whats in the paper. You make the arguement that by having these sections in the paper people are encouraged to look into horoscopes instead of the real sciences of the world.. And you say that 1 in 4 already " believe" the the art of horoscopes based off of astroligy. and so I finally bluntly make my point; people know beforehand their is bias in the paper and that it can be influential so reading the paper is their choice, and second I see no correlation between Believeing in horoscopes and losing literacy in "real" science. In fact Horoscoeps are what got me into astroligy and seeing how the universe works. And for the casual reader of Horoscopes, they dont understand how or what it actually is and it dosent really affect their views of real sciences. And for the space that they "waste" on horoscopes, well I think 1 in 4 people reading their horoscopes are capable of being responsible and using horoscopes in what ever way they wish, and just because the other 3 dosent believe in horoscopes, dosent mean they arn't just as valuable and other articles, like for me at least, astroligy opened up complete new understandings for me in my actual understanding of science, and that itself is quite valuable indeed.
I support this idea very much. Replacing the horoscopes with science information would I think encourage more people to pick up a paper.
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Karl Fisch –
ReplyDeleteIn your article “Dear Denver Post: No More Horoscopes”, I strongly agree with your negative feelings towards the horoscopes in the Denver Post news paper, and I support your idea for replacing this portion of the paper with science articles. Your statistic about one fourth of Americans actually believing in Astrology shocked me and made it even more evident to me that horoscopes need to be replaced by articles that are logical and supported by science. Isn’t the purpose of the paper to educate readers? I could care less if people looked at horoscopes, but to take away newspaper reader’s source of knowledge and replacing it with garbage makes me slightly angry. If people know more about America’s and the world’s problems, then people would be more knowledgeable about the issues and more inclined to help fix the problems. In the future, I hope to see this change made to not only improve the newspaper but also enhance the knowledge of its readers.
Dear Mr. Karl Fisch,
ReplyDeleteIn your article "Dear Denver Post: No More Horoscopes", I agree with what you are saying about the Denver Post needing to make the most out of their paper by replacing horoscopes with a science or another educational section. In your article, you talked about the statistic that one fourth of Americans believe the horoscopes. I believe that if Denver Post went with your idea of changing the horoscope space for a science article or something, then maybe that one fourth of people would start wanting to learn about science. I believe that this idea of yours could positively influence education to all ages, and take people's focus away from pointless things such as their daily horoscope. My only concern about changing the horoscope is that some people purchase the paper specifically for their daily horoscope. Changing the horoscope to a science section could significantly take away from revenues. In comparison to horoscopes, comics have no educational value either. However, most people buy the paper specifically for the comics; I know my Grandpa does. I agree that the Denver Post should try to incorporate more educational sections in the paper, but I feel that the Denver Post should not take out important sections that appeal to costumers.
Dear Mr. Fisch
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your article “Dear Denver Post: No More Horoscopes” I agree with you that horoscopes have no place being in the paper before educational articles. When I looked at the poll that was hyperlinked on your blog I could not believe that only 26% of people believe in astrology yet about the same amount believe in things like witches and ghosts. With statistics like these the Denver Post should be printing more stories about Science or even anything educational. With this said even if they are not willing to replace horoscopes permanently maybe they will compromise and have horoscopes only one day of the weekend instead of two? I agree that the Denver Post should not print horoscopes when there are more important stories out there that could benefit society as a whole.
In your article “No More Horoscopes”, I agree with your point of view on worthless horoscopes in newspapers. In times like these that are full of such social and political turbulence, newspapers should be informing the public of controversial and important things happening in society and not giving them stupid sources of worthless, mindless entertainment. Entertainment like horoscopes captures the minds of America therefore drawing them away from what is important. To be rather frank, I believe a large amount of Americans have gotten to a point where critical information does not even phase them and they just want entertainment everywhere they go. It is the newspaper’s job to slowly draw the mindset of America to a more knowledge based place once again. Averaged out, on December 9, 2010, America was accurately ranked 14th on the education scale and dropping. I feel if newspapers changed what they were putting in each section, maybe America would get a wake-up call as to what is happening to their minds and realize horoscopes are not what they should be wasting their time on. Instead, they should be spending time on learning information that will make them smarter and prepared for the future and the world.
ReplyDeleteIn your article “No More Horoscopes”, I agree with your point of view on worthless horoscopes in newspapers. In times like these that are full of such social and political turbulence, newspapers should be informing the public of controversial and important things happening in society and not giving them stupid sources of worthless, mindless entertainment. Entertainment like horoscopes captures the minds of America therefore drawing them away from what is important. To be rather frank, I believe a large amount of Americans have gotten to a point where critical information does not even phase them and they just want entertainment everywhere they go. It is the newspaper’s job to slowly draw the mindset of America to a more knowledge based place once again. Averaged out, on December 9, 2010, America was accurately ranked 14th on the education scale and dropping. I feel if newspapers changed what they were putting in each section, maybe America would get a wake-up call as to what is happening to their minds and realize horoscopes are not what they should be wasting their time on. Instead, they should be spending time on learning information that will make them smarter and prepared for the future and the world.
ReplyDelete