[meteorite-list] Anyone remember this?

[Sterling K. Webb]

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

The first words out of that mouth should be:
"Hi! Do you have a signed release from me?"


Sterling K. Webb
-----------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <MeteorHntr at aol.com>
To: <meteoritemike at gmail.com>
Cc: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>; <GeoZay at aol.com>
Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 12:01 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Anyone remember this?


> 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
>
>
>
> **************Remember Mom this Mother's Day! Find a florist near you 
> now.
> (http://yellowpages.aol.com/search?query=florist&ncid=emlcntusyelp00000006)
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