Does your local TV news report on astronomy matters?

[Rue]

How well does your 6pm-ish news report on astronomy stories if at all?
This can be from an affiliate or independant station.

[Jack Higgins]

"NASA's Mars rover, with attached beagle 2 probe, launched succesfully from Florida today" - RTE, Ireland's (alleged) national broadcaster.

They try, but fail miserably #-o

[Wingnut]

Sure, they talk about palm readers and tarot cards all the time. The newspaper even has the horoscope section.

Kidding aside, they rarely mention anything about it. But then they don't talk about computer issues or rally racing very much either.

[dgruss23]

I've got a good story about this. I frequently give public presentations on Friday nights at the local public observatory. Two years ago I gave a presentation on the Drake equation and the possibility for life based upon current science.

Before the presentation one of the local news channels shows up and wants to interview me. They ask about my presentation and I give them an overview. I stressed to the reporter that I was talking about the science and conditions/requirements for life and that life was probably not as common as portrayed in science fiction movies. She wanted to pin me down so she asked "So do you think there are other civilizations out there?" I said

"Well, as I said there probably are very few civilizations out there in our galaxy, but one thing science teaches us is that if something can happen once it can happen again so probably there is other intelligent life out there."

They stayed for about 20 minutes of my 1 hour presentation. When I got home I watched the report and this is how it went. The news anchor comes on with a picture of the classic big eyed alien shown behind him. He says that I was at the observatory discussing evidence for extraterrestrial life. They then cut to the interview with me and out of 5 minutes of the interview they selected me saying this: "...there is other intelligent life out there."

So anybody that saw that thinks some nutcase was at the observatory claiming to have evidence for extraterrestrial life. Nice reporting. :roll: #-o

[tracer]

"NASA's Mars rover, with attached beagle 2 probe, launched succesfully from Florida today" - RTE, Ireland's (alleged) national broadcaster.

They try, but fail miserably #-o

Well ... at least the Mars rover wasn't launched at 18 times the speed of light.

[The Supreme Canuck]

Yee hee! I'm lucky! I get a science news show every weeknight at 7:00 pm! Ha!

[Ducky]

Jym Ganahl (I don't think I spelled that right), one of the meteorologists at our local NBC station, frequently gives reports of what planets are visible when and where, meteor showers, and the same with the space station.

[mutant]

Our stations here very rarely report on anything related to astronomy and when they do the reports are usually full of mispronounciations and misinformation. None of the stations have a science editor or any programs related to science whatsoever. All we get are these horrible reality shows. The public station here used to have a lot of interesting shows from NOVA which I really enjoyed but it has now gone to showing mostly cooking and sewing shows. It is kinda disappointing.

[gethen]

We've got a local weather guy who always alerts us to the chances of a good aurora, posts times to watch the ISS go over, and also at least mentions the regular meteor showers as their dates approach. He's also mentioned the Mars approach several times. I'd give him an A, for a local weatherman.

dgruss23--I sympathize with you. My spouse has had the same experience when dealing with the media. Spend a half hour tutoring them on the significance of a given situation and wind up hearing yourself pronounce some sound bite that frequently misrepresents what you're trying to say.

[Rue]

The news anchor comes on with a picture of the classic big eyed alien shown behind him. He says that I was at the observatory discussing evidence for extraterrestrial life. They then cut to the interview with me and out of 5 minutes of the interview they selected me saying this: "...there is other intelligent life out there."

Must of been a slow news day...Perhaps they spiced up the story to impress the editor.

[dgruss23]

The news anchor comes on with a picture of the classic big eyed alien shown behind him. He says that I was at the observatory discussing evidence for extraterrestrial life. They then cut to the interview with me and out of 5 minutes of the interview they selected me saying this: "...there is other intelligent life out there."

Must of been a slow news day...Perhaps they spiced up the story to impress the editor.

Yes ... kinda shows that the television news is more about the "show" than about accurate reporting of the truth/story. :roll:

[tracer]

The public station here used to have a lot of interesting shows from NOVA which I really enjoyed but it has now gone to showing mostly cooking and sewing shows. It is kinda disappointing.

I've got news for ya -- all the PBS stations have gone to showing mostly cooking and sewing shows. (And Teletubbies.)

[ChesleyFan]

Local news is actually pretty good at reporting on major celestial events (comets, meteor showers, Mars opposition). Amazingly, the lunar eclipse in May was the top news story (!).