Feb 12 2013

Who says the media needs science people?

Categories:

Media, Stupidity

by PZ Myers

Maybe we just need them for the ones who think global warming attracts meteors.

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36 comments

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1

glodson

12 February 2013 at 5:17 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

At least it seems to be just plain ignorance rather than a desire to discredit the idea of global warming.

No, it isn’t making this error any easier for me to accept as happening on air.
2

Rob Grigjanis

12 February 2013 at 5:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Big Media doesn’t care about science, unless it’s a story they think will “grab” audience. Of course, the audience is largely scientifically illiterate anyway.

I was watching the CBC News Network in 2011, and they were beginning a story on a recent study on the dire condition of the oceans (“Much worse than we thought” was the lead-in). This was cut off a few seconds in, because there was “breaking news” from Ottawa. Some functionary was giving a press briefing on the itinerary of Will&Kate’s upcoming visit to Canada, about a month later.

Not a word more about the ocean study, to this day as far as I can tell.
3

Pierce R. Butler

12 February 2013 at 5:39 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

C’mon CNN – ever’buddy knows its the ghey secks what attracts meteors!
4

Naked Bunny with a Whip

12 February 2013 at 5:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I thought asteroids were attracted to dinosaurs.
5

nohellbelowus

12 February 2013 at 6:43 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Yes, yes, yes… do hurry up with your science-y explanation-y stuff Mr. Nye… Can you get to the point, please? Will this global-warming meteor hit us or not? No? Okay, great.

In other news, the tiddly-wink festival began today in downtown Scranton…
6

jnorris

12 February 2013 at 7:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I thought the meteor is coming at the Earth because Germany stole all the sun light.
7

peanutcat

12 February 2013 at 7:11 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

That question made my head hurt . . . . .
8

F [nucular nyandrothol]

12 February 2013 at 7:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

So, more German pirates = less global warming and meteors, but we’ll have to negotiate with them for the sunlight?
9

crocodoc

12 February 2013 at 7:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

A cute little joke about meteorites and meteorology. Get off your high horse, superscientists.
10

grumpyoldfart

12 February 2013 at 7:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Back in the 60s the government came up with the idea that teachers should never admonish a child for a wrong answer but to praise them for making an effort.

Fifty years later it is clear that the experiment hasn’t worked.
11

Jafafa Hots

12 February 2013 at 8:37 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Well I’m just glad this asteroid will be “sort of going up and above” the planet earth.
12

thebookofdave

12 February 2013 at 8:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Good question! Her Cosmetology training sure is coming in handy for this interview.
13

rogerfirth

12 February 2013 at 10:01 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I did like Nye’s putting the miss distance into terms of time. It’s one thing to think of a rock coming by half the distance to the moon, or half the distance to geosynchronous satellites. Those are all in thousands of miles. But when he says “fifteen minutes” it really puts it into perspective, It really shows you that the universe is out to kill us, and life really is nothing but a series of fortunate near misses.
14

ibyea

12 February 2013 at 10:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Why do people keep watching the CNN garbage?
15

dannicoy

12 February 2013 at 11:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

there needs to be an awards ceremony for this kind of thing and this thing should be nomitated
16

nohellbelowus

13 February 2013 at 12:28 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

@rogerfirth #13:

I did like Nye’s putting the miss distance into terms of time.

Are you sure Nye wasn’t talking in terms of angles? Fifteen minutes of arc, as it were? He held his thumb and forefinger together as if he was attempting to convey a small angular distance… until Miss Rocks-In-Her-Head interrupted him.

Fifteen minutes of arc is equivalent to 1/4 of a degree. I would assume scientists calculated and compared the trajectory required for a collision to the actual measured trajectory and expressed the difference in terms of angle.

Not saying I’m right, however! It could very well be 15 minutes of time, meaning that if the meteor was hypothetically delayed (or advanced) by 15 minutes (along its predicted path), it would collide with our planet.
17

nohellbelowus

13 February 2013 at 12:48 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I believe God delivered this meteor as retribution for Pope Ratzi’s resignation, and it was actually intended for The Vatican.

Omnipotent, indeed. Jehovah throws like a girl.

*Gets coat, very quickly*
18

Menyambal --- son of a son of a bachelor

13 February 2013 at 12:57 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Bill Nye touched his watch when he talked about 15 minutes. I think he was saying that if the earth were fifteen minutes further along in its orbit around the sun, it’d cross paths with the meteoroid/asteroid.

Let’s see … Earth moves 18 miles per second, 60 seconds in a minute, 15 minutes … 16,200 miles in 15 minutes. Sounds about right for the distance I recall it passing by. (I can’t be arsed right now to look it up.)

Not a point I’d be trying to make on the TV, though. It’s too abstract, and not even a point.

Yeah, CNN has lost all credibility as far as I am concerned, long ago.
19

nohellbelowus

13 February 2013 at 1:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

@Menyambal #18:

Of course you’re right. I didn’t even see him roll down his sleeve to expose his watch. Derp.
20

bradleybetts

13 February 2013 at 4:16 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

“Is this an effect of, perhaps, global warming or just some meteoric occasion?”

Oh for fuck… My faith in Humanity just died a little.
21

kevinalexander

13 February 2013 at 6:05 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

He could have explained how the asteroid, if it hit the earth,would release clouds of cobalt thorium G that would encircle the earth in a Doomsday shroud for ninety three years.

It wouldn’t be true but Fox would still blame it on Obama.
22

eclipsse, failed Boojum hunter

13 February 2013 at 7:45 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Watched this. In disbelief.

People rely on this channel for information?!? Is it always this bad or was this just a trainwreck moment?

Glad I live in the UK!
23

bbgunn

13 February 2013 at 7:49 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I have a friend that whenever he sees a TV personality on TV express something that ignorant, he starts singing softly “Daisy, Daisy…” a la HAL in “2001: A Space Oddysey.”
24

dalbryn

13 February 2013 at 7:53 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I want to see someone ask Bill Nye how global warming will effect the Bigfoot population.
25

Rev. BigDumbChimp

13 February 2013 at 8:23 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Is it always this bad or was this just a trainwreck moment?

A little of the first a lot of the second.

CNN has been steadily circling the toilet for the last 5-6 years. There is some good coverage on there but the vast majority is more entertainment than hard news.

Of course CNN doesn’t have a monopoly on this formula.
26

borax

13 February 2013 at 8:23 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

At least there wasn’t any global warming denying. I’ve learned to accept the very lowest expectations on science reporting. Now I’m going to have some whiskey.
27

rr

13 February 2013 at 8:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

There actually might be fewer meteors due to global warming; the increased carbon at the edge of the atmosphere is causing a cooling effect, reducing atmospheric drag on all the crap orbiting the Earth.
28

hexidecima

13 February 2013 at 8:48 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Being simply limited in intelligence is an excuse, but there is no excuse for a a supposed report being that utterly ill-informed. But I guess these people aren’t reporters anymore, they are simply blithering faces on a screen.
29

captainoblivious

13 February 2013 at 9:09 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Nice to see a lib anchor acting as stoopid as the faux news people. Can we stop listening to these idiots now?
30

atheist

13 February 2013 at 9:39 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

This seems to be an ongoing situation with Bill Nye and cable news. Here is another anchor asking him a depressingly stupid climate-change-related question. Is this some kind running joke, or are cable news hosts literally this fucking stupid?
31

andyo

13 February 2013 at 9:49 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

At least there wasn’t any global warming denying.

Not in the video, but the uploader seems to be a denialist using this as an example of media reporting doom and gloom.
32

v0idation

13 February 2013 at 9:59 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Nature abhors a vacuum. The meteor was clearly pulled here by the science vacuum in so many thinking heads. It’s a good job Bill Nye’s gang managed to scare it off with Bruce Willis and nukes.
33

d.f.manno

13 February 2013 at 11:41 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

CNN has done worse:

Space shuttle traveling at 18c
34

grumpypathdoc

13 February 2013 at 12:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

CNN hasn’t had a science and technology unit since December 3, 2008 when Miles O’Brien left CNN, along with 6 producers. Soon PBS will be the only on air presence doing a reasonable job of promoting science. And by the way there is an article that may explain why David H. Koch (yes one of the Koch brothers) funds ‘Nova’ on PBS:

http://watchdogprogressive.com/2011/04/the-curious-case-of-nova-and-david-h-koch/
35

Ichthyic

13 February 2013 at 1:48 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

A cute little joke about meteorites and meteorology. Get off your high horse, superscientists.

uh, it was NYE who made the joke, to help excuse the gross ignorance of the woman who asked him that ridiculous question.

IMO, he handled that way better than most of us would have. My response would have been too blink twice and have my brain lock up for 10 seconds while I tried to interpret something rational to what she asked me.

…or just completely ignore her question and just go on with talking about the meteor.
36

Ichthyic

13 February 2013 at 1:50 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

CNN has done worse:

I disagree.

that one was obviously replacing a single word that got overlooked.

this woman’s question was profoundly ignorant.