Well, it looks like this is the story that won’t die, as much as KTVU wants it to.
That’s the San Francisco TV station that caused such an intertube uproar by posting an amazingly inaccurate story claiming an alien signal was found by SETI scientists. They decided to print a retraction, but it sounds an awful lot like a politician wrote it:
BERKELEY, Calif. — On Monday, KTVU reported scientists have received an odd signal from space and some readers may have interpreted this as a confirmed extra-terrestrial contact.
Now, you might wonder, why would anyone interpret the article that way?
Because the original article said this:
Across the globe, researchers searching for signs of life in space were abuzz this week with word that a mystery signal had been picked up by a giant radio-telescope in Puerto Rico.
Now the dilemma is — how do you answer it?
Yes, how silly of the readers to think this meant that the article was saying an alien signal had been picked up.
Puhhhhleeeeze. KTVU, listen up: your reporter screwed up. He made series of mistakes, including conflating two different stories. Hey, that happens sometimes. We’ve all screwed up. Of course, there are supposed to be protocols to prevent the article from going live with errors in it. But your editors made a mistake, too, letting the story go up without checking up on it first.
OK, fine. That happens sometimes too. What you should do then is issue a simple retraction and move on.
But not you guys! Nope. You decide that instead of owning up to your mistakes, you should issue a non-retraction that tries to put the blame on the readers.
Wow. That is really low. Shame on you. Seriously. That’s shameful behavior for journalists.
Feh.
January 18th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Considering the state of journalism these days it’s not surprising.
Blaming the readers is a good scapegoat though…
‘Yesterday we printed a story on the assassination of the Pope. It has come to our attention that some readers may have interpreted the article to convey the ludicrous notion that the pope had been assassinated. This is of course false, and the pope is alive and well. We will be accepting apologies from readers in the letters to the editor section’
January 18th, 2008 at 9:11 am
BAD TV Station! *BAD*!!!
I say that in jest, but seiously KTVU, the public relies on the press to keep an eye on the government and our world. It is really important in the working of our society that we are well-informed. It is OK to get things wrong once in a while. But please don’t cover it up. If you feel you can get away with covering up your mistakes, are you going to bother trying to get your stories right in the first place? We need to be able to trust the press. PLEASE, don’t let us down.
January 18th, 2008 at 9:14 am
I gave up watching TV news – especially local news – a long time ago. The reporters are chosen because they have good hair or mirror the local demographics, not because they have a brain. The so called “new shows” run about one percent news, 99 percent infotainment. They’re a waste of time.
January 18th, 2008 at 9:46 am
I got the impression they thought the signal came from either Canada or Bulgaria.
January 18th, 2008 at 10:30 am
I thought it came from a small town bordering Ohio, Nevada, Maine, and Kentucky?
January 18th, 2008 at 10:38 am
I got the impression they thought the signal came from either Canada or Bulgaria.
Some swamp gas reflected the light from Venus…
January 18th, 2008 at 10:40 am
In other words they are trying to turn the mistake on us silly silly readers . It’s easy to do so, especially when the original article has been heavily modified.
Crooks.
January 18th, 2008 at 11:09 am
With that retraction KTVU is trying to *prolong* the story. Blaming readers is just a handy tool for that. These guys may be dumb about many things, but don’t think that getting attention is one of them.
January 18th, 2008 at 11:15 am
So they found signs of life on Planet Canada already? I didn’t know that was possible, seeing how close it is to the Sun.
January 18th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Isn’ t this the same mentality that caused that lawyer guy to apologize to Dick Cheney and his family when Cheney shot him in the face and waited a day to say anything about it?
January 18th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
You might think that the Science Editor for KTVU, who is
supposed to read and check each story for accuracy before
it goes public, would have caught such errors or at least
put up a red flag while he investigated such a potentially
important story himself. But nah, let it run.
And to blame the readers for misinterpreting what was
written (and rather poorly at that). I had never even heard
of KTVU before (note it’s a FOX station), but if I ever hear
anything from them again, I will think three times before
accepting it.
January 18th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
I suspect this is more a case of the fine old corporate practice of “covering your ass”. After all, if they’d actually printed an honest and open admission of error, they might have received a letter along the lines of:
“Dear Sirs,
Your mistaken announcement of the discovery of signals from an extraterrestrial civilization caused me severe emotional and psychological distress at the thought that aliens who might come to earth and subject me to intrusive probing actually exist. I am therefore suing you for a bajillion dollars. Expect to hear from my lawyers, the firm of Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe, in a few days.”
January 18th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Ken B says: “I thought it came from a small town bordering Ohio, Nevada, Maine, and Kentucky?”
Heh. Ever since I saw the movie (I don’t normally watch the Simpsons, but that had me laughing to the point of gasping) I’ve been meaning to check a map and verify if each of those states borders a state with a “Springfield” in it. I know that Maine borders Massachusetts and Kentucky borders Ohio (but Ohio is in the list).
Sheesh, sorting out bosons is easier than this!
- Jack
January 18th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
It appears Dembski works for them, now. I guess the seminary didn’t like the fact he wouldn’t stop stalking other schools.
January 18th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
… was someone trying help save Arecibo? Frankly, I’d just like to see Helen Hunt in the jungles near a big antenna again. That’d be ok, too.
January 18th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
You mean Jodie Foster.
January 18th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Last August, here in the Bay Area, ABC’s KGO Channel Seven “AccuWeather” ran a graphic during its six o’clock newscast depicting that night’s upcoming total lunar eclipse. In it, the shadow of the earth overtook the moon from the lower right to the upper left.
Having worked in local news, I called the newsroom immediately afterwards and was put through to the graphic department. Surely the station and its staff would wish to correct the understandable error and not have its “AccuWeathercaster” looking less than informed.
Nope, there was poor Sandhya Patel on the eleven o’clock broadcast with the animated shadow, once again, merrily going the wrong way.
Hope the egg they made her wear tasted great.
January 21st, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Umm, Jack -
Maine used to be part of Massachusetts, but it doesn’t border Mass. It is the only state that borders on only one other state, that being New Hampshire. There is a Springfield in New Hampshire, though. Not far from Springfield VT, home of Stellafane and the Springfield Telescope Makers. Both these Springfields are in the Connecticut River valley, upstream from Springfield Mass.