Hi Robert, Actually I think that the papers probably ran with the info they had been supplied with from official sources, but the story changed mid-stream right when the papers were being printed. I don't seriously think that they can be held responsible in this case with all the confusion going on over the incident. The updated report ran the following day, but it is a continuing problem getting the news media to get things dead right. When I worked for the Taranaki Daily News (scanner operator), the reporters and subs used to come to me to check on things, knowing my fanaticism with astronomy. With newspapers, the chain of reporting is often a direct cause of most of the problems. 1. Someone contacts a reporter, who in a lot of cases is a kid straight out of a journalism school, and knows nothing apart the fact they are alive. 2. The reporter writes up the story with his/her own interpretation of what they heard. 3. The story is checked generally by the Chief reporter to ensure nothing actually defamatory is said. 4. The story is subbed onto a page by a sub-editor who knows nothing about the subject either, checking to see the story fits the hole in the page. Often the context gets slightly altered in the process. Remeber that while everyone has their own specific interests, newspapers have to cover so many different types of stories etc that they have to rely on the originator of the story getting it correct initially. In this case the airline people were in confusion as were we all. It must have been easier pre 1957, when things like this were either meteors or UFOs. These days satellites get the blame for everything. 5. The paper gets printed and hits the streets where we wince and 99.9% of Joe Bloggs public couldn't care less what the object was; just that they are pleased they weren't on the plane. (We on the other hand would have given our eyeteeth to have seen the event ;:-})) ). 6. The paper then gets used in the cat's litter box. We continue to fume and the rest of the populace turn to the sports pages in tomorrow's paper. What I think is really needed is for everyone to make contact with their local newspapers and make it known that for items of a specific scientific nature, they are available to either check the info or as an accurate news source, prior to publication. In some cases they might get a polite brush-off, but generally the news media like to get it right (despite my generally cynical comments); unless they are the gutter press when all bets are off. Of course I was in a useful situation. Working for the paper, and having a reputation in astronomy generally helped. Cheers Rod Austin ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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