Cutting through ‘BS’ of fake news is topic of Poynter talk

Note: This event has been rescheduled from a previous date.

“Fake News, Bogus Science, and Bad Math: A Journalist’s Advice for Cutting Through BS” will be the topic of a talk by Charles Seife, professor at New York University’s (NYU) Department of Journalism, on Wednesday, April 11. 

Seife’s talk, sponsored by the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism at Yale, take place from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Rm. 128 of the Yale Law School, 127 Wall St. The talk is free and open to the public. 

Seife is a professor of journalism at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, and he came to that position after a career writing about science and mathematics. His most recent journalistic post was at Science Magazine, and prior to that he was a U.S. correspondent for New Scientist.

Seife is the author of six books, including the award-winning “Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea.” His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including the Economist, Scientific American, ProPublica, and The New York Times. At Princeton, Seife majored in mathematics. He holds two masters degrees: one in mathematics from Yale and one in journalism from Columbia.

The Poynter Fellowship in Journalism was established by Nelson Poynter, who received his master’s degree in 1927 from Yale. The fellowship brings to campus journalists from a wide variety of outlets who have made significant contributions to their field. Among recent Poynter fellows are Robert Pear, Margot Sanger-Katz, and Elizabeth Kolbert.