Yahoo! News posted an interesting little item recently:
The bit that caught my attention was this:
The photo has surfaced on several Mayan doomsday discussion forums. But was the light beam a sign from the gods — a warning about Dec. 21, 2012, the date that marks the end of the Mayan calendar cycle, and when some people fear the world will end? Or is it simply the result of an iPhone glitch?
According to Jonathon Hill, a research technician and mission planner at the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University, which operates many of the cameras used during NASA’s Mars missions, it is almost definitely the latter.
“Almost definitely?” Seriously? An ASU big shot thinks there’s room for doubt on this “question?” The explanation of the physics behind the image doesn’t leave much room for doubt. But, in the United States of Jesustan, neither reporters nor scientists dare hint, let alone say outright, that goddidit is not a good answer to any question. Nope. Fair and balanced reporting in the USA requires that religion almost always gets a free pass. In this case, rather than calling out the religious interpretation for the bullshit it is, the reporter just ignored it politely. Thus, religion wasn’t promoted, but it wasn’t criticized either. That’ not good reporting. It’s not even “fair and balanced” reporting. It’s simply allowing people to read the story and retain unchallenged the assumptions with which they began. News reports like this allow Americans to remain only marginally better informed than illiterate peasants. They are a large part of the reason our society is on a fast track to cultural and economic irrelevance.
Welcome to Jesustan. It’s a hell of a place.
Lithp
February 29, 2012 at 10:16 am
It’s very uncommon for a scientist to claim anything that isn’t in probabilistic terms. Experiments do not “prove” relativity, they “greatly support it.” In fact, you can see that this isn’t the reporter’s bias–the man is quoted as saying “The intensity of the lightning flash MOST LIKELY caused the camera’s CCD sensor to behave in an unusual way.” Emphasis mine. This tendency might partially be a result of religious pandering, but it’s also because making factual claims is frowned upon in the sciences. Theories are rarely spawned pure & perfected, so there is an emphasis on drawing conclusions from the data, not trying to establish every discovery as a natural law. So, as far as Yahoo News goes, this is actually a very well-written story.
Recovering Agnostic
February 29, 2012 at 4:44 pm
I’d agree with that. Isn’t this on a par with Dawkins calling himself agnostic? He can’t be 100% certain, but the available evidence suggests a particular conclusion very, very strongly. I think that’s a rational, sensible position. If there’s a problem, it’s with people who treat any degree of uncertainty as evidence in their favour, but would regard anyone claiming 100% certainty as proof of a conspiracy to hush it up.
the chaplain
February 29, 2012 at 8:18 pm
Hey, thanks for your comments. I agree that scientists rarely, if ever, use the language of certainty. And, upon further reflection, I think the article actually went to some lengths to explain the science behind the phenomenon. Kudos to the reporter and the scientist for the latter, and acknowledgement that most “knowledge” is, strictly speaking, a matter of probability.
I think the thing I found lacking most was what I mentioned in the post – that the criticism of the religious bullshit was simply implied rather than stated outright. Perhaps I would have liked a statement or two to the effect that, unlike the scientific explanation, the religious idea has neither evidence nor explanatory power. An admonition to readers to grow up and ditch the religious end times crap would have pleased me greatly. Of course, as I noted in the post, that kind of bold criticism of religion doesn’t happen often in the American press. And it may have been too much to expect from Yahoo! which is not, after all, a major mainstream media outlet like Reuters, AP, etc.
Lithp
March 2, 2012 at 6:57 pm
Yeah, Yahoo News rivals Fox News in terms of being actual news, & what passes for real news isn’t much better. This story is actually more detailed than most articles I see about major crimes or legislation. And that’s terrible.
danielwalldammit
May 17, 2012 at 1:02 pm
“occult investigators” …I am continually amazed that folks manage to hype this concept as a form of expertise.