Veteran Journalist Recommends Voodoo Anyone?

AIA-FL Blog ^ | January 7, 2010 | Malcolm A. Kline

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Veteran Journalist Recommends Voodoo Anyone?

Malcolm A. Kline, January 7, 2010

Veteran journalist Wes Vernon gave Accuracy in Academia’s first textbook an unreserved rave in a review in The Washington Times. “In an ideal world, Voodoo Anyone? would be required reading for every journalist who communicates with the public on politics and economics,” Vernon wrote. “That would emphatically include the overwhelming majority in the mainstream media.”

“Even sportswriters or commentators should understand the market forces at play for the stratospheric salaries accorded football players, just as entertainment writers have some familiarity with celebrity performers whose pay dwarfs that of their nominal bosses.” Vernon himself worked for 25 years at the CBS Radio Stations News Service.

“This thin but—in its own focused way—comprehensive book would ideally provide a clear underpinning for economics as taught in academia,” Vernon states. “It should, but doesn’t, in part because many courses in economics are often shrouded in mystery and sometimes flavored with a goodly amount of gobbledygook—the better to maintain tenured employment for a sector of the professoriate.”

“The late author Christopher Warden brings to the table impeccable credentials as an educator and journalist, having spent eight years in the latter calling as the editorial page editor of Investor’s Business Daily.” As a reporter, Vernon covered many of these same stories and can offer a professional understanding of their media treatment or lack thereof....