I almost spit my coffee all over my keyboard this morning. Fox News' science and technology section had this story. It would be one thing if they mentioned the predictions of astrologers as a small part of a larger story on the eclipse, but the astrology is their story. I'm not trying to say that there is no news story here, but something like this belongs in the weird news section, not the science section. Metaphysical claptrap is not science.
The finger of shame is waggled at Fox News also because their journalism here is a bit lazy. In addition to the aforementioned offense, they link to the AFP story on Yahoo which is a bit more reasoned. For a small, blog-like news organization this is an acceptable practice. But Fox is a large news organization with many resources. Don't they have someone to write a reasoned science-y article about the eclipse? Even better, couldn't they just afford to print the AFP story in its entirety?
Shame on you Fox News. Shame on you.
Although slightly more reasoned, the AFP straddles the line with their story. It's almost like they have written this tongue-in-cheek, "hey look at what these goofy astrologers are saying," wink wink, nudge, nudge. The problem is that an uncritical reader could take this as some type of acceptance for astrology. "But the AFP thought the astrologers were knowledgeable enough in the ways of science to be quoted."
I guess the heart of my gripes lie in the cognitive disconnect between the general population and the scientific population. Since much has been written about this already, I'll just link you here.
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First of all, I love that you're blogging and love the name of your blog....though I have to wonder what inspired it (did it have something to do with your first blog on natural food?). Second of all, yeah--that's crazy that the news story was about the astrologers' predictions regarding the eclipse and not just about the eclipse itself--what is UP with that?! I read most of that article about entertainment giving science a bad face--makes sense. Though it's hard to imagine living without them, movies & television seems to do so much harm that sometimes I wonder if we'd be better off without them. My concern is more toward how they influence us morally. Even an adult can be numbed into thinking wrong is right (or not that bad) when they see it so often in movies. Anyway, kudos to you on your blogging--I also love your short "about me" blurb--lol! You are too cool.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to believe any scientist giving any credence to an astrological predection. Fox news must be short on reporters, perhaps it is budget cut backs that allow them to get away with such lousy reporting. If they keep up such unofficial reporting as this article, they will soon loose their following of more informed thinkers. Thanks for the notice on this article.
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