What has happened to accuracy in reporting???

I know this might be a little bit of an extreme reaction, but I nearly jumped out of bed last night at what I heard on a program in the Earth Day series on the National Geographic Channel. You got that?? Not Fox News, not A%26amp;E, not one of the other tabloid channels, THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL.



Quote: "...the earths orbit is current not an ellipse, it is a circle, making the distance from the earth to the sun constant and keeping the earth's climate stable. However, in the future, as it has been in the past, the earth's orbit was elliptical causing the distance from the earth to the sun to vary by as much as 5 million miles, reducing the sun's heat and causing the ice ages..."



This is wrong on so many levels...



When I was a kid (late 60s to early 80s), National Geographic (then a magazine) was one of the defacto standards for accurate reporting.



1) Have any of you had similar experiences with so-called Science-based reporting?

2) Are you frightened by this?What has happened to accuracy in reporting???
Thanx for a great question Al...



There are many things that feed into this problem



Firstly - here is an asnwer I posted to another question, which helps to undertsand the phenomenon:

"Because science education sucks.

Most people do not understand how science works or what evidence means.



People are not taught to think critically and apply logic - so what do you expect.



I am trying to teach my astronomy course by emphasizing critical thinking and the importance of evidence, and stressing how we know what we know. But it's hard work, and it takes both a really good understanding of the underlying concepts and an understanding of misconceptions and how to overcome them.



Until school teachers are paid more, or school assessments are developed to test deep understanding, rather than regurgitation, only an idealistic few will be in a position to instil the concept of science and its method into all school children."



On top of that, there are many misconceptions that make it into textbooks. How can school teachers, or even professors, be expected to know everything about everything, so we trust textbooks which contain errors. Editors try to make a good job of getting reviews for texbooks - but unless faculty with expertise review sections of books ahead of publication, misconceptions remain.



Add to that the move towards the soundbite and news as entertainment...

Try reading the speech by the Fire Chief in Fahrenheit 451 - it seems very pertinent.





Oh yeah - and then there is "Theory" vs "Hypothesis". Referring to Global Warming as a Theory in the scientific sense is fine. In science a Theory is an idea (or group of ideas) which have been tested and so far all the evidence supports the Theory. Theory in everyday usages is more like "hypothesis" in science. Because this distinction is not well understood it causes all sorts of confusion about what is accepted science and what is simply an untested (or not sufficiently tested) idea.



To answer your last question - Read Fahrenheit 451 and you will be scared too....
Similar would be how some report that global warming is a "theory" when it is obviously happening now. Why these type of things happen is special interest groups sponsor the channels among other things. You need to be able to decipher the truth



As far as I am concerned the Earth has always orbited in an elliptical shape. I really have no idea why such a mistake was made.What has happened to accuracy in reporting???
I don't have pay TV, I had it once and decided it was mostly rubbish. But I have read the same sort of thing reported by others on this site about the National Geographic channel. If you dig back in the archives of YA I think you might find that "Brant" has written much the same thing within the past several months.



I gather that the History Channel and the Discovery Channel are even worse with their Moon hoax and 2012 "documentaries".



This sort of thing is a problem. The media will blather on about freedom of speech but as you know, a lot of this stuff is just lies.



If you want to do something about it complain to the broadcaster, but also write to influential newspapers, address things to their science reporters or the letters column. I guess you are in the USA, you could start with papers in Washington, LA, NY, Boston, Chicago, Dallas -FW etc. You'd have a better idea than me which ones. Get your facts really straight and keep it simple.



Every time the media gets a complaint about something they don't necessarily assume you are a lone nut if you don't write like one. If you look like you know what you are talking about and appear rational, they will assume that there are hundreds of others who felt the same and did not write. Also write to the advertisers, this could be really influential.



It might also be worth writing to the astronomy departments or faculties of major universities, Uni. of Arizona is a big place for astronomy at present.What has happened to accuracy in reporting???
The National Geographic Channel is a unit of News Corp, which owns Fox, the New York Post, etc. So this isn't a complete surprise.