What would we do without headline writers?
Oh, yeah. Have accurate headlines.
I just stumbled on this beauty over at MSNBC.com:
Oddly enough, that headline is completely wrong. Scientists found evidence of ancient salt water oceans on Mars, by seeing chlorides (salts) in the mineralogical maps made by Mars Odyssey. Not life. Salt.
Life != salt.
In general, headlines are not written by the reporters, but by editors who, apparently, either don’t read the articles or don’t understand enough about the topic to make a coherent — or even remotely accurate — headline. That’s no surprise to me, of course, having seen it all before.
But I guess I should be happy; at least they got "Mars" right in the headline.
March 21st, 2008 at 5:00 pm
I suppose the title isn’t that bad considering the fact that NaCl might have supported life…
March 21st, 2008 at 5:01 pm
No they didn’t get Mars correct. It’s obviously a totally different planet actually teaming with life
March 21st, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Ahhh, now it makes sense, Martian life was killed off by high blood pressure. Apparently they had too much salt in their diet. *rolling my eyes*
March 21st, 2008 at 5:06 pm
The Columbia disaster was nothing to laugh about, but this was the headline I recall seeing the day CNN reported the breaking news:
http://www.collegehumor.com/picture:10180
How big is the science research department at some of these news corps? A broom closet??
March 21st, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Having been an editor in a former life, I will tell you that headlines are written after reading the first paragraph. More honestly, since everyone is always behind schedule, after skimming the first graf. That makes good sense, because the first graf of a properly constructed news story should be little more than a headline expressed with more words and better grammar.
Looking at the MSNBC piece, I might have written something like this: Do Mars Salt Flats Hide Evidence of Ancient Life?
Reading that headline, the reader knows Mars has salt flats that someone must think could hold evidence of ancient life? But, it’s phrased as a question that, one hopes, the article expands upon.
The ancient life angel is the reason this kind of story gets mainstream play. “Salt Found on Mars” is a yawner.
March 21st, 2008 at 5:46 pm
I like the programming reference. I think my use of “!=” in your video chats rubbed off on you. And, if I’m wrong, let me wallow in my pride for a few moments before correcting me.
On another note, wut. Well, news is a business. Lying justifies money to them, I suppose.
March 21st, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Oops
Other way around. Money justifies lying. rofl.
March 21st, 2008 at 6:02 pm
It’s even more laughable when you look at the BBC’s spin on the same story:
their headline: ” Mars is ‘covered in table salt’ ”
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/709/bbcpc4.jpg
..another fine example of American journalistic standards…
March 21st, 2008 at 6:05 pm
That would be a great headline if what followed were justified – but believing it is sort of like shopping for a bathroom scale by lining them all up in the store and standing on each one, then buying the one that gives you the lightest weight.
March 21st, 2008 at 6:08 pm
another fine example of American journalistic standards
Hoy! Credit where credit is due. Our British journalists are quite capable of screwing it up all by themselves.
March 21st, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Ibeechu, I hate to say this, but I’ve been programming since before you were born.
March 21st, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Yeah, I was just looking around teh intertoobs for the headline I saw a few days ago about the methane detection in HD189733b that read something like “Signs of life in a giant planet!”. I really wish I could find it, but in the mean time I found the CNN article which is titled “Star explodes halfway across the universe”.
Not bad, except that I found it on their Most Popular stories sidebar, where the alt headline reads: “STAR EXPLODES LIGHTYEARS AWAY”. Ugh.
March 21st, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Well, BA, thanks for at least letting me have some pride
<3
March 21st, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Now that I think about it more, the main headline for the article is also horrible! The editor didn’t even write it to highlight the fact that it’s the brightest GRB we’ve ever seen. I mean, stars explode halfway across the universe all the time. It just seems like it could be a generic SN/GRB headline for something of no particular note.
The space.com headline “Brightest ever cosmic blast spotted’ is quite a bit better.
March 21st, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Don’t despair, folks. The last time I was quoted by a reporter, I was shocked that they got it right. It does bring up the question of whether the one who wrote the headline bothered to read the article. I do wonder how they read “life” into salt deposits.
March 21st, 2008 at 6:41 pm
I remember when Newsweek devoted a cover to the words “Scientists discover God.” Inside was a lengthy article in which a handful of scientists discussed their disparate religious beliefs, while others espoused agnosticism or atheism. So the cover could just as correctly have read “Scientists uncertain over existence of God” or “Scientists reject notion of God.” More honestly it could have said “Some scientists believe in God.” But that sort of cover blurb doesn’t sell magazines, does it?
March 21st, 2008 at 6:51 pm
KC, check the article out.
“…which one planetary scientist claims could be sites of ancient life. ”
“…researchers think the briney pools that made them could have been hospitable to life.”
“‘If you’re trying to find life on Mars, the more and different places that exist, the better the chances are that one of them is going to have the right conditions…’”
“…could be the most welcoming environment for life on Mars yet discovered.”
…and on and on. The word “life” is used nine times in the article, three of those times in direct quotes from planetary geologist Phil Christensen.
March 21st, 2008 at 7:04 pm
It’s MSNBC for FSMs sake. You want accuracy too?
It’s salt. Or maybe it isn’t. it is a chloride. It might be salt, It might be a place where life might have started, if it really is salt, which is might not be. We think it is on Mars.
OK – I made that last bit up
An awful lot of wishful thinking going on there. But hey – it is MSNBC. Waddyuwant?
JC
March 21st, 2008 at 8:00 pm
So, they’ve found Lot’s Wife?
J/P=?
March 21st, 2008 at 8:22 pm
As I always say, in life you have to take everything are told with a pinch of salt.
March 21st, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Harold:
Did. It was about what I expected. Salt deposits – if that indeed is what they are – means there was once water on the spot. While it raises the chances of ancient life, it’s still hard to get “They Found Life On Mars!” out of it. At least, it seems that way to me.
A better headline would have been: Salt Flats Raise Possibility of Martian Life. There’s a nice hook and a gist of the article
March 21st, 2008 at 8:56 pm
[...] != Salt Bad Astronomy has pointed out a really unfortunate headline over at MSNBC. The short version: somehow the [...]
March 21st, 2008 at 9:02 pm
As for journalistic standard, last February there was a report by folks at Uppsala University that the core of the Earth has body-centered-cubic lattice structure.
Unfortunately, the university also released a VERY misleading illustration. See it for yourself:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080208091314.htm
Quite predictably, every Korean newspaper faithfully reported that the Earth’s core is found to be cube-shaped, just like Rubik’s cube.
Reading the comments here, I’m glad we’re not alone in journalistic incompetence…
* Actually I can’t but wonder if whoever was at Uppsala Univ. actually had had all this in mind, smiling sinisterly while drawing that illustration…
March 21st, 2008 at 9:03 pm
OUCH! Ibeechu gets pwn3d by the BA…. That’s just gotta hurt!
March 21st, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Now, if they’d found trans fats, MSNBC would have a point.
March 21st, 2008 at 9:09 pm
JackC said:
“It’s salt. Or maybe it isn’t. it is a chloride.”
What I read:
“It’s salt. Or maybe it isn’t. Maybe it’s chocolate.”
Personally, I’m hoping they do find chocolate on Mars. I’d volunteer for a one way mission for that! (So long as it’s milk chocolate, I hate dark chocolate, it gives me gas…
)
March 21st, 2008 at 9:47 pm
@Michael
Wow. And I thought *my* eyes were bad.
I did, however, go back over my post several times thinking I had – once again, allowed my fingers to fail me miserably.
Chocolate? Oh well – at least it wasn’t cream cheese. Or – maybe it was or is, if they have chlorides in them?
JC
March 21st, 2008 at 10:35 pm
And its or its organics conservation which AFAIU was one other reason behind the attention.
That sounds pitiful. It is more majestic with “Scientist consensus behind atheism.”
March 21st, 2008 at 10:48 pm
@Michael Lonergan
I, too, read it as chocolate. It’s certainly an interesting mental image. I wonder if it may have been previously inhabited by a race of Oompa Loompas.
March 21st, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Well, I think we have found the True Identity of the Face on Mars here folks, It’s Willy Wonka, and the city at Cydonia, Why, it’s the Chocolate Factory of course!
Where’s Hoagland…?
March 21st, 2008 at 11:42 pm
+LOL+ Michael Lonergan FTW!!!
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:41 am
P: Idiots raise my blood pressure.
P: Salt raises my blood pressure.
C: Salt = idiots
Therefore Mars was once populated by idiots.
Doubt me?
Where are they now?!?! DEAD!
Ha!
You can’t argue with logic like that.
Quite predictably, every Korean newspaper faithfully reported that the Earth’s core is found to be cube-shaped, just like Rubik’s cube.
And if it ever solves itself, we’re all in really big trouble!
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:45 am
Ibeechu, I hate to say this, but I’ve been programming since before you were born.
Oh boy! A round of geek buffness comparing!
I cut my teeth on a KIM-1 microprocessor in 1976!
http://oldcomputers.net/kim1.html
Kneel before the Desperate one! I am your king!
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:56 am
If there’s salt, there must be eggs too…
March 22nd, 2008 at 1:17 am
…. and ham…. Green eggs and ham….
March 22nd, 2008 at 1:21 am
O, Desperate One, why dost thou fail so…
Bow before me!
http://www.commodore.ca/gallery/brochures/vic-20/VIC-20_Brochure.htm
March 22nd, 2008 at 1:24 am
O Desperate One, prepare to bow before me… I posted a pic of my first computer, but the BA Anti-Spam detector flagged it for his eminence’s approval. For some reason I haven’t figured out how to direct link images yet…
I think you see where this is leading when he does post it…
March 22nd, 2008 at 1:52 am
We found life on Mars again?!
Wow, that’s gotta be the hundredth time this decade.
Also, I’ve been meaning to ask …
Did they ever find evidence of water ice on the Moon? I just stopped listening after the first fifty times the media reported it as having been discovered – it’s a ‘Boy Who Cried Wolf’ thing, you know.
I’m sure that if anyone ever invents a perpetual motion machine, or a car that runs off water, I wont have to worry about whether the report is accurate or not, because it will be in mass production by the time I can be bothered listening to anyone in the media talk about it.
It’s sad when the repeatedly churned-over jibber from the media is a high enough level of useless noise that such a significant fact – if true – would be indistinguishable.
March 22nd, 2008 at 1:55 am
If you saw the piles of it that my grandad used to put on his food you’d think salt == life too.
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:27 am
IRONMANaustralia:
I thought I read recently that there were plans to crash another probe into one of the polar regions of the moon, into a crater whose bottom lies in near perpetual darkness. For now, the only water on the Moon, I assume, would be the bags of urine that were probably left there from the Apollo missions. I can’t see any reason why the crew wouldn’t leave that behind as it would get rid of weight.
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:20 am
Good thing hardly anyone watches MSNBC.
March 22nd, 2008 at 6:50 am
Darn, and I thought I’d be first because I’ve been programming computers since 1980. Oh, well. Maybe I have it on diversity of computers used: DEC KL-10 and KL-20, PDP-11, VAX 750 and 780, and Rainbow, Commodore Vic-20 and 64, Apple IIe, TI-99/4, Honeywell DPS 8/47, Intel-based PCs, AMD-based PCs, and Macs.
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:52 am
Hey BJ, no one is going to put “GRB” or its expansion in a headline in anything but a specialist publication. You’re writing for a general audience. Only the geeky types who read astronomy blogs have a clue about something called a GRB.
And the guy writing the story has to figure out how to explain this Really Big Explosion in two or three sentences. You try it.
Someone screwed up the MSNBC headline, but give the guys a break. It ain’t easy writing headlines that fit into a fixed space and pass scientific muster. And, let’s remember, the news in that release, in the mainstream’s perception, is not that salt was found. It was that they got one person to give them quotes indicating that salt can preserve evidence of life. (So can lots of stuff, so I’m waiting for pix of Martian tarpits…) Scientists need to remember that, when they speak, the public often hears something different from what they’re saying.
Besides, if/when evidence of life is found on Mars, we’ll all know it because NASA will announce a “major news conference next week”.
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:13 am
SCIENTISTS DISCOVER FLAVOR DEPOSITS ON MARS
(Kids in the Hall reference)
March 22nd, 2008 at 10:11 am
Are you bowing yet, O Desperate one!
Funny thing is, I bought it when I was 17 or 18, and the guy who sold it to me made the comment that went something like this:
Me: Can you see computers getting much better than this?
Salesman/Professional Liar: Not really, I think that this is pretty well as far as they can go. You have to realize, this machine has more memory than the computers they used on the Moon Rockets.
Meanwhile, my friend was building Apple Compatible computers in his basement. He went on to become an ER doctor, and was just recently elected to the Alberta Legislature.
I went on to work at Radio Shack, and eventually pastor a church, before realizing the error of my ways.
March 22nd, 2008 at 10:20 am
New headline: “MSNBC Marrs Headline”
March 22nd, 2008 at 10:22 am
BTW… my TV remote has more memory than that VIC20!
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Quiet Desperation:
I think you need to get down on your knees! I cut my teeth on an ASR-33 connected to an HP-2000 half a county away. This was 5 years before your KIM-1.
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:50 pm
no one is going to put “GRB” or its expansion in a headline
Forgive me if I over-estimate the intelligence and science knowledge of my fellow humans, but I’d wager that just the mention of “gamma rays” would catch people’s eyes. Aren’t gamma-rays cool and “mysterious” amongst the non-scientist masses?
And of course, for the comic-book lovers:
[Bruce Banner] + [Gamma Rays] = [Incredible Hulk]
March 22nd, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Maybe like Chris Matthews for this MSNBC editor salt in MARS
“it Gets To Me”
-Chris
March 22nd, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Stuart, they might be cool and mysterious to the average person, but I wouldn’t want one of those things as my neighbor!
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Michael Lonergan: The Kim-1 is both older and more primitive than the Vic-20.
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Michael Lonergan: Er, I think the VIC-20 came a *bit* after the KIM-1.
KIM-1 had no video. It had a 6 digit LED display. You programmed it directly in machine code by punching in the hex.
Although I was an Atari 800 guy, so I must kill you now.
Ken B: That’s not a personal computer. The KIM-1 was in my *room* as a kid. King Cat sez: YER UPSURPSHUN FAYLED!
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:41 pm
BBC got it right? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7302591.stm
March 23rd, 2008 at 3:56 am
I am not serious about the VIC 20, poop, I only ever figured out how to write 1 program in BASIC….
March 23rd, 2008 at 4:08 am
Desperation….
Arghhhhhhh @* dead*
March 23rd, 2008 at 5:11 am
@ Michael Lonergan:
It was actually a failed attempt at sarcasm. I picked that example because I was under the impression that the presence of water on the Moon was a slam-dunk at this point.
And where do you think I might have gotten that idea?
March 23rd, 2008 at 6:26 am
@Ironman…. Ahhh The BA?
March 23rd, 2008 at 6:29 am
Ironman… TYhe presence of wee-wee maybe! I had thought the Lunar Prospector (?) crash was inconclusive?
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:32 am
What no LGM on Mars?
“It’s life Jim but not as we know it, not as we know it.” – Star Trek parody
March 23rd, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Well if silcon can form life a la Star Trek then why not salt?
Yep, the media consistently gets science wrong – and yet manage to get business, sport and politics more often (if not always) right or right~ish … Priorities you have to question.
Business is part of the background, its important sure but maybe not as much as some who worship the “Invisible Hand” of the “Free (but actually costly & not at all fair) Market like to beleive. Will historians of the future remember or care what todays GDP or Dow Jones figures are? Or will they write that we had a huge chance to explore space, colonise the Moon, travel toMars etc .. and passed up that chance to invade other nations that posed no threat to us instead?
Sport, like the arts, gives a lot of people pleasure and take sup alot of their time & energy but infinest distillate is really just a game.
Politics does matter but, whoever is in charge has to work onproblems with astrong science aspect tothem, global cliamte change, environmental dsasters we’re creating, the diminishing levels of fossil fuels, the debate over whether our kids are taught reality or fairy tales, etc ..
Maybe I’m biased but I think Science does matter – a lot more than sports, and more even than business and about on par with politics. So the media should get it right! It cheeses me off no end that they rarely if ever do. More than that, they not only expect to get it wrong, they expect few people to care that they get it wrong and they imply it doesn’t matter to anyone but a few geeks or eggheads .. It seems acceptable to be ignorant of sceince in our western “civilisation” – far more so than to be ignorant in almost any other major area.
.. Yet without science we’d have no “civilisation” like ours at all. We’df have so much less quality of life and virtually no idea or understanding of tehworld around us. No computers. No modern medicine. No microwaves, phones, vacuum cleaners, cars, ad infinitum .. Science is the difference between stone age and computer age.
It deserves more respect.
It deserves to be got right.
Especially from the people whose job is to communicate and record our culture.
Still it could’ve been worse, I once read a headline (& article ) stating that :
*astrologers* had just discovered a new pulsar! :-I
Groan ….
Hmm.. this whole post may be an extended groan – but then it may also be right .. & if if anyone wants to use this anywhere, if it helps in any way, then you’ve got my permission and encouragemnet to go ahead. (To quote and /& or forward, to edit it and use as best suits.)
March 23rd, 2008 at 7:59 pm
As a journalist let me appeal to authority and blah, blah, blah, blah.