The NY Times Again Fails Its Fitness Test.

The New York Times is a great newspaper in many respects, but its repeated failure when it comes to Fitness and Nutrition is unforgivable in light of the many inconsequential, oddly biased and downright silly articles it has featured regarding this genre. This so-called "study" involved a whopping 12 individuals—which disqualifies it as a study. For the Times to give it such importance is stupid:  The article is HERE.

The vast majority of fitness/nutrition articles on mainstream websites (think major newspapers, magazines and "news" sites like Huffington Post) are not authored by fitness professionals, fitness authors like myself, or accomplished athletes, all of whom have first hand personal experience to draw upon.

These articles rarely, as I have long pointed out, include a recent photo of the author so we might assess them physically as to their qualifications. However in the case of the NYT article referenced above, the picture suggests a late-middle aged lady who does not work out. It has been made clear that the great NYT doesn't feel the need to either have a fitness editor, nor publish the writings of fitness professionals.

Having been employed by many magazines and newspapers over the last 40 years I can say that the majority of published non-news articles you and I read on any given subject are not authored by "experts" in the field. I myself have been assigned to write articles on a subject I knew little about and thus had to do a lot of research in order to come off as someone seemingly in the know.  This process describes the work of the majority of writers from all eras. Despite a lifelong dedication to fitness and nutrition, of the scores of articles I have been assigned as a writer, not one article in the fitness/nutrition field was ever assigned to me, but rather in three instances to colleagues who had little if any experience or expertise. One editor had the gall to demand I provide the necessary information to a totally unqualified author, basically acting as his unpaid ghost writer. What is wrong with people?

This is why we need to be wary of what we read, especially when presented in a way as to make the author appear to be an expert in the field. Unless their CV is referenced to support their qualifications regarding the subject matter at hand, they rarely are.