Pro Publica panders to 4G, and 5G, tin-foil hatters

On my main news blog, I wrote recently about Pro Publica's reporting on a Senate committee minority report on the COVID lab-leak hypothesis, co-reported with Vanity Fair. Some people, in part due to tribalism, pushed back, claiming it got wrong either translations of Chinese documents or Chinese Communist Party tea-leaf reading, and some were saying PP had ruined its reputation.

As of the time I wrote this, PP and Vanity Fair haven't retracted or extensively modified the original piece.

On the other hand, THIS piece, claiming that there's "smoke," and posssibly "fire" behind it, on 5G 4G cellphone communication, HAS damaged its reputation. Maybe not ruined, but yes, damaged. (I thought it WAS 5G originally, but it's worse yet, if Peter Elkind is giving a platform to older, behind the curve 4G nutters, but Elkind does so to bankshot off saying, in essence, "worry about 4G and worry even more about 5G." And, that's even worse than only citing 5G.

(Spoiler alert: From everything we know on good science, it's safe.)

There are SEVERAL major "fails."

First, it's one-sided on reporting on alleged (sic) effects of 4G. Just scientist who has studied it and say there are no general fears is referenced, and he's not interviewed. He is made to look like a caricature, in my opinion.

Second, it's anecdote-based.

Third, all the claims by the tin-foil hatters about 5G have also been made in the past, when they rolled out, about 3G, and to update the original typing, are being made now about 5G. That includes semi-tin foiler DOOCCTOR (Rush Limbaugh voice) Jill Stein, 2012 and 2016 Green Party presidential candidate.

Fourth and related to that, no "professional skeptics," problematic as they can be at times, were interviewed. They and scientists alike, as in the case with Stein, would cite the "nocebo effect."

There's other problems. Strawmanning or Overton Windowing by saying the FCC hasn't updated its cell tower or cellphone standards since flip phones is one. Reality is that those things may have leaked more radiation. And, same complaints were  made at least a decade ago about phones as well as towers and specific wireless systems.

Back to the anecdotal. An increase in behavioral disorders among kids of moms who were heavy cellphone users while pregnant may be true, AND may be causational BUT not linked to cellphone radiation. Obvious counterpoint is that it could be causally correlated to psychological issues of pregnant moms who were heavy cellphone users while pregnant.

The "it irradiates sperm" was on ejaculated sperm outside of testes. Study size is TINY: 23.

Update, Jan. 4 2023: ProPublica has had Elkind write a follow-up, which is even more full of pseudoscience than the original. For example, contra PP and Elkind, electromagnetic hypersensitivity is fringe science at best, pseudoscience at worst.