Outside the Beltway

Outside the Beltway

Non-Expert ‘Experts’

James Joyner
2

David Douglass has an excellent piece in TCS, “About Those Nobel Laureates…,” noting that, just because someone has a Nobel Prize, it doesn’t mean they are an expert outside their narrow field of expertise. It seems obvious, but the media often touts Nobel laureates and other genuine experts who spout off about things totally unrelated to their expertise.

2 responses to “Non-Expert ‘Experts’”

  1. Hal Avatar
    Hal

    Not that journalists in the TCS ever do such things. And heaven forbid that bloggers do this.

    🙂

  2. James Joyner Avatar
    James Joyner

    TCS and blogs are opinion pieces, mostly. They achieve whatever they achieve on the basis of argumentation, not credentials. To say that “Nobel laureates” support position X, without pointing out that they won a prize for a completely irrelevant endeavor, gives too much legitimacy to mere opinion.

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