[meteorite-list] Anyone remember this?

[cdtucson at cox.net]

Space junk.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,272212,00.html
Carl Esparza
IMCA 5829

---- MeteorHntr at aol.com wrote: 
> All,
> 
> In my last post, I failed to tie the  first point together with the second. 
>  
> 
> Sometimes experts actually  do get it right, but the members media of the 
> media are the ones that twist it  and make it wrong with misquotes. 
> 
> There is a story today in the Wichita  paper (at least online) with a 
> mistake in it, saying Geoff helped me dig up the  big 1,430 pound Brenham 3 1/2 
> years ago.  While Geoff did show up a couple  of days later, and was 
> instrumental in helping us get the word out to the media  about the Main Mass find, 
> he wasn't there when it was dug up, Phil Mani was.  
> 
> Who knows how that mistake happened?  Neither Geoff or I said that  to the 
> reporter.  She didn't pull that from an earlier story she  wrote.  Go figure?
> 
> But now that it is in print, others will probably  run with the "fact" in 
> future stories.
> 
> The poor Fire Chief at Monahans  still has the stigma of taking the 
> meteorite away from the boys that found it  because an AP reporter stated it as 
> fact.  We all know it was the Police  Chief of Monahans that confiscated the 
> rock without the due process of  law.
> 
> "Little mistake" some will say.  "Not a big deal" others would  say.  
> "Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story" still others  would argue.
> 
> It might be a big deal to the Fire Chief, or to Phil Mani,  or to any of 
> the other BILLIONS of people who would like to be able to believe  that facts 
> stated in the media are true as stated.
> 
> If editors would edit,  or if reporters would run a story buy the quoted 
> person to fact check before it  goes to print, mistakes could be avoided.  
> 
> But, deadlines have to  be met.  The next story has to be started.  Ads 
> have to be  sold.
> 
> It is life in the news media world. 
> 
> One day soon we won't  have newspapers anymore.  It will all be online.  
> And mistakes will be  able to be corrected in short order. 
> 
> Until then, we suffer, and do the  best we can with what we've got.
> 
> Steve Arnold
> 
> 
> 
> 
> In a  message dated 5/8/2009 12:02:27 P.M. Central Daylight Time, 
> MeteorHntr at aol.com  writes:
> 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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