Not Dumb Blonde, Dumb Newspaper

London's Sunday Times committed two major sins of journalism, on Jan. 17, 2010. The Times didn't get the facts straight and it falsified quotes, in a story on scientists doing research on blondes.

The Times claims that Dr. Aaron Sell, a researcher at the Center for Evolutionary Psychology at the University of California, has done research that proves that blond women are more assertive and want things to go their way more often than brunettes and red heads. Dr. Sell, however, claims his study never mentions anything about women's hair color or hair for that matter.

In addition to these misinterpreted facts, Times also completely made-up a quote by Dr. Sell about California being "the natural habitat of the privileged blonde." Dr. Sell denies ever having saying it in his over the phone interview with John Harlow.

Since the articles printing Dr. Sell has written a letter to the Times asking it to remove all references to himself and his research from the article and that it was just not true. Dr. Sell has also posted a note a on his Web site disowning the article.

This is not the first time the Times has publish an inaccurate article, and it is not the first inaccurate article about blondes. In 2006, the Sunday Times was deceived by a false claim that a WHO study discovered blondes were going the way of the dinosaur. Two other stories about blonds written by the Times were "Recession chic: why blondes are having more fun," and "You silly boys: blondes make men act dumb."

This repeat offence of blatant inaccuracy and fabrication can only hurt the Sunday Times' and the press media's reputations. Readers rely on news to be factual and tell them the truth. When the news is only accurate part the time, it causes readers to question it the rest of the time. London's Sunday Times is the a good example for all young journalist of bad journalism.