[meteorite-list] Anyone remember this?

[MeteorHntr at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/8/2009 11:25:52 A.M. Central Daylight Time,  
meteoritemike at gmail.com writes:
I just don't understand how any "expert"  could be fooled by that
object in the first place.  

MikeG,

It happens ALL the time. And reporter "experts" are sometimes  the worst.  
I don't know how reporters can mess up simple facts.  If  it was political, 
it stands to reason why a reporter would error ALL the time in  favor of 
their candidate or topic, but something as benign as meteorites, and  they 
still mess things up.

We should have a media "Hall of Shame" website  devoted to chronicling all 
the meteorite mistakes as they happen!

Here is  the scenario:

Geologist at the nearest Junior College gets a call from a  reporter with 
the "facts":  "Man has hole in his roof, with a metal rock on  the floor 
under the hole.  Fairly certain it is a meteorite, what do you  think?"  Expert, 
walking between classes he is teaching: "Does a magnet  stick to this so 
called 'meteorite'?"  Reporter: "Yes,  strongly."

Expert, choking on his coffee: "Sounds like it is the real  deal, can I see 
it?"

With TV cameras rolling, 2 hours later the expert  arrives at the scene, 
with fresh images of meteorites in his head that he found  on Google just 
before he headed out of the office, he is handed the object and  he says...
 
We all know what he says.  Just read the quotes.

That is how it  happens.  

The universe is now rotating around him instead of the  sun for a few days 
and his head is spinning on his great fortune.  He  starts swerving over 
into other areas of expertise like Financial Advising,  telling the finder not 
to be suckered into selling his meteorite too cheap to  the first greedy 
dealer that comes along to rip him off.  

Or he  goes the other way and tells the finder, that if he donates the rock 
to his  institution, that all the positive PR this will generate for his 
school will  help him get on that tenured track he is coveting.  Oh wait, he 
THINKS  that, he actually tells the finder that only science will find the 
mysteries of  the universe locked in his rock if he gives it to the school, 
and that if a  dealer gets it instead, it will only be cut into pieces. 
 
He starts thinking about the grant money he can get when he writes the  
paper on it.  Maybe he will get to speak at the Rotary Luncheon?  Even  now his 
students that laugh at him will HAVE to respect him.

I could go  on, about how "science" will have to look at the donated object 
through glass,  as the committee at the school responsible for it won't 
allow it to ever be  cut...but I won't.

Shove a TV camera in front of about anyone, and it  amazing what comes out 
of their mouth sometimes.

Steve  Arnold



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