Imprecision
I subscribe to a couple of Wired feeds, and earlier today an article called Apple’s ‘Green’ Notebook Doesn’t Impress Environmentalists popped up. Without even reading it, I knew it had to be something about Greenpeace - which reminded me that I really wish people would stop conflating individual organizations (like Greenpeace) with environmentalism as a whole. It’s possible to be an environmentalist and also think a lot of the things certain environmental groups do do are ridiculous - just as it’s possible to care about animal rights without supporting PETA.
The same thing happens with misuse/abuse of the word “scientists” too.
While “Scientists claim X” technically is not incorrect, it does carry an implication of inclusiveness: “All Scientists claim X” when used as a headline, rather than what they mean “A Handful of Scientists claim X”.
Sadly “Apple’s ‘Green’ Notebook Doesn’t Impress Some Environmentalists” doesn’t grab as many eyeballs even if it conveys a more accurate picture almost as succinctly.
I mentally read all headlines with “a couple of”, “the ones we could bother interviewing”, “the ones not actually busy doing science and having time to talk to journalists”, ranging up to “the ones who handed us the press release” and so on inserted liberally into the sentence.
Personally, I treat just about anything Greenpeace says as the ramblings of the deeply insane, because that seems to be what they are.