Over the weekend, the editors of the Houston Chronicle wrote an editorial slamming NASA, primarily over its safety record. While I agree with a lot of what they’re saying, they also included this disingenuous bit:
An explosion at a rocket motor test sight near Edwards Air Force Base in California killed two persons and critically injured four others.
That sentence has so much wrong with it that I hardly know where to begin.
The biggest problem, of course, is that it wasn’t a NASA accident. That mishap happened at a facility run by Scaled Composites, which is in the private spaceflight business. It had nothing to do with NASA.
Second, the “facts” in that sentence are flat wrong. Three people were killed, not two. Two people were critically injured, not four. And it’s a test site, not “sight.” The editors also managed to misspell the name of Space Shuttle Endeavour. Twice.
Mike Coats, the director of the Johnson Space Center, took the Chronicle to task in a press release. So far, Houston’s Leading Information Source has yet to print his response or correct their errors.
Everyone makes mistakes, of course. But when the editors are aware of their mistakes and refuse to correct them — or even to admit them — they illustrate an irresponsible disregard for the truth.
UPDATE: As LST’s newest hire Texpat points out, a commenter on the Chronicle’s site claims to have spoken to editorial page editor James Howard Gibbons:
he adopted the fall back position that these articles are written in “haste” (His words folks, not mine) and that his editorial board consists of several editors who must write four or five editorials a week. I replied that must account for the lack of fact checking that had the explosion at Burt Rutan’s facility being included as a NASA failing.
I have no idea what Gibbons was trying to say with that “haste” comment. Is he claiming it’s okay to put out a bad product, as long as you do it fast and daily?
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Matt, this is really disgusting. Take a look at the post by “wesearch” in the comments after this editorial. He spoke to James Gibbons 3 hours ago and it was pretty sad. And the first comment to point out the Scaled Composites mistake was yesterday afternoon, 24 hours ago.
Another example of why I quite having it dumped off at my house a few years back.
Have not missed it at all.
Well, Mike’s response is pretty good, and what I would say myself.
I must add, though, that I agree with Griffin’s statement where he expressed doubt about the “impact” of “global warming”, and whether or not it’s caused by human activity. The world’s climate has been changing ever since time began. The biggest factor in global temperature is the Sun, and we can’t do anything about it.
Griffin spoke, though, to whether or not the current climate was the “optimal” climate, and just who gets to decide what the optimal climate is? The world may be better overall with higher temperatures. In the last few hundred years, the effects of COLDER temperatures were much worse.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer
But if you want to ignorantly rip at NASA, you’ll pick on everything you can think of, whether you’re right or not. Right, Chronicle?
And you are surprised why???
The last time I heard someone say “Hey, I ante got time to do the job right.” , didn’t have that job any longer.
Editors write 4 or 5 editorials a week. I pictured editors writing a daily column….. pounding out their ideas daily. There are 7 days….. isn’t that enough time to write a piece? Someone who knows more explain to me, please. Are editors now, young folks out of college, not getting paid very much? I thought editors had some clout. I don’t remember in my earlier years, editors making such mistakes. Is the newspaper struggling so much, that they don’t pay anything and don’t check anything?
Concur with Tedtam, we should be surprised, why?
I don’t refer to it as the Houston ‘Pack-of-Lies’, or ‘Pravda for the Sheeple’, just for the sake of name calling.
Both are in fact accurate descriptions for what this putrid rag is. But as I always try to think positive, it is still useful for lining bird cages and wrapping fish!!
I wouldn’t eat fish that touched that paper. Use the Greensheet, at least there is a reason for that to be printed.
At my house, the Comical is used to teach my teens critical thinking skills. I often hand them an article and ask them to identify biased statements.
They lost me years ago when they printed above the fold on the front page Rep. Jack Brooks’ accusation that his republican opponent, Steve Stockman, had lied about graduating from UH. Didn’t bother with a fact check. Poor Steve had a news conference the next day, handed out photocopies of his diploma and authorized reporters to check his transcript, of which he was none too proud.
Comical ran a simple, tiny correction buried inside the paper below the fold. It simply wasn’t news that the democrat incumbant had lied.
Driveway spam, it is!
The Houston Press is better. Weirder, but better.
Their last vestige of truth went away when they got rid of the Piranha Club (former Ernie) in the comics. Now the Friday Fry’s ad is the only thing worth looking at.
#10 Concur with you Fasternu, but watch out for those ads in the back! O:
Better, yes, and at least, unlike our excuse for a hometown ‘newspaper’, is also somewhat informative and entertaining too!