Her article is so weird, but also strangely juvenile as if it were a high school assignment.

She deserved the excellent reaming she got, the scary part is near as I can tell, many so called science journalists are like her, totally without any degrees or background in science, but boy, do they have large amounts of twitter karma and they go to all the best conferences to hang out.

Why should this be a surprise?

CNN doesn't get many articles - if any - right, and your local newspaper just repeats the UPI or Reuters line for anything not local. Left to themselves, "news"-people often make things up. The public doesn't know any better (at least the part of the public seen viewing such news).

Add the surgeon's lament to the many pages of outrage generated by shooters, mechanics, soldiers and sportsmen as they see their activity impugned.

The second paragraph in Ms. Fitts' article is the explanation. Her sister is in Medical School and plans to be a surgeon (and, likely it's her younger sister, since the sister is in her first year, while Ms. Fitts has been writing long enough to get published in Mother Jones and Popular Mechanics).

So, now when their Mom introduces them, she'll say, of the younger one: "This is my daughter, The Doctor."; and, of Ms. Fitts: "And, this is my other daughter. She writes for Popular Mechanics. That's what you do with an expensive, Ivy League Journalism Degree."

Sibling rivalry is sooooo appealing when disguised as reporting, and posted on line.

In a word, insecurity. I used to be that way.

Long before the internet and social media people with little talent or achievement thought they made themselves look good by tearing down the accomplishments of others.

Modern technology just makes it easier and more rampant.

It depends what kind of surgeon but many are jerks and you can tell which ones are gonna be mega assholes by their specialty.

You have to be an egotistical jerk to be a surgeon. If you're not...you're not gonna last very long in the profession. It's stressful, it's hard, competitive, long hours, ruins your personal life, you might kill someone. It's why men occupy so many of those top surgery positions (they also get sued way more than women and part of me thinks is because they're so damn abrasive).

If you're a generally nice person you go into other specialties. Become a kidney doctor.

Ppen may be right but both my wife and I are here because of surgeons so I'm thankful for the 'jerks'.

I don't think that this is a new trend. Maybe it's more conspicuous due to the internet.

The thing is - Journalism is based on a lie, which is that the Journalist is competent to analyze and weigh judgement on all many of issues and topics in which they have little or no experience or expertise.

This is why stories so often take the form of a morality play, and rely so heavily on narrative.

Most Journalists are just opinionated people who write well. It's a field that seems to attract a certain personality type - intelligent people who are rather arrogant and often self righteous. Many of them also seem to carry a big chip on their shoulder.

The writers at Vox are perfect examples of this. They're a bunch of 20 somethings from good schools who are 120% confident in their opinions on all manner of subjects, none of which they know much about. But they're certain that they're qualified to pass final judgement on people and events. And they know the proper solution to any problem put it front of them - because all problems are caused by greed, racism, sexism and homophobia.

It's only us ignorant rubes among the 'public' who can't see how easy it is to know everything.

What people don't understand, they tear down. So, because the surgeon is better trained and more knowledgable about surgery and medicine that the journalist, and all famous journalists have achieved acclaim by tearing down sacred cows, it is important that the journalist never be impressed by anything or anyone and never acknowledge that anyone should be admired (except journalists who tear down sacred cows).

On the other hand, people who achieve greatness understand others who achieve it and are willing to express admiration. Or, at least, to acknowledge advanced skill.

When a surgeon decides in the course of an operation to change it’s objective, to splice that artery or cut deeper and remove another organ which he finds infected, he is not making a snap decision, but one based on years of knowledge, experience, and training. ~ George S. Patton, Jr.

I work with a lot of Drs and surgeons, of course, and I've not found many to be jerks. Most are very happy to have us caring for their patients, and telling them what is going on with their patient the 23 hours and 55 minutes they aren't with them each day.

I've cared for a well-known surgeons kid, as a nursing student in clinical. He wasn't a jerk to me, even as a lowly know-nothing student. I've found that decentness to be the norm, not the exception.

Now, if you, as a patient, go against every recommendation they make to you, well then yeah, you might see their nasty side. Things that happen to you after surgery reflect on them, even if it's totally your fault. They do care about their professional reputation. And they will fire patients who simply won't do the most basic of aftercare for themselves.

You know what ISN'T hard, yet people DO have attitudes about it? Journalism. When was the last time you read a news article that didn't have some pretty glaring spelling and grammatical errors? Personally, it's been a decade or more.

momof4: "I work with a lot of Drs and surgeons, of course, and I've not found many to be jerks... I've found that decentness to be the norm, not the exception."

Same here. I've met very few doctors who were arrogant, condescending, inconsiderate, rude, intolerant or unintelligent. The norm is quite the opposite to a high degree. They're not perfect - they are human like the rest of us - but overall admirable people.

Of course surgeons are to be admired. A butcher doesn't have to worry about killing somebody if he's cutting pork chops. As far as I'm concerned, surgeons deserve all that pussy that they get.

It's interesting because I get various different opinions based on the profession of health care workers themselves relative to the specialty of the doc.

Everyone seems to agree that ER docs are some of the friendliest most down to earth people....but if I ask say a nurse her opinion on psychiatrists vs a therapist her opinion on them I get two very different answers. Now ask me as the patient and you're not gonna get a very nice answer.

"Journalism is based on a lie, which is that the Journalist is competent to analyze and weigh judgement on all many of issues and topics in which they have little or no experience or expertise. "

Yep. Journalists often fancy themselves to be experts in every subject, when frequently the opposite is true. Some years ago, I was on an airline flight seated next to a lawyer, and we got to talking. I told him that one thing that frustrated me was that the newspapers often wrote articles about airplanes depending on whichever aircraft manufacturer their tribe had decided was in the hot seat this month; the most grievous recent example had been an AP article slamming the Boeing 737, but using as their example an incident involving a McDonnell-Douglas MD80, of which the article included a photo. (Obvious visible difference between the two: the 737 has engines under the wings; the MD80 has them on the tail.) The lawyer told me he understood perfectly; he had recently been lambasted by a TV reporter for his role in a locally notorious trial, but the lambasting was based on the reporter's inability to comprehend the difference between a prosecution witness and a defense witness.