Crappy journalism by major news outlet

[Marc_G]

Recently Webb made interesting observations on a world designated K2-18-b which is about 124 light years from us.

Apparently this qualifies as being in a distant galaxy... Come on CBS, do better!

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-k12-18b-hycean-planet-support-life-james-webb-space-telescope/
(Edit: they have fixed it!)

 

[Antares JS]

This combined with the frequent misuse of the word "intergalactic" convinces me that a lot of people really don't actually know what a galaxy is.

 

[neil_w]

This combined with the frequent misuse of the word "intergalactic" convinces me that a lot of people really don't actually know what a galaxy is.

That is a sad state of affairs. To be sure, that headline is a pretty boneheaded error, and does suggest a general lack of basic understanding. A Galaxy is not exactly an advanced concept.

 

[tsmith1315]

This combined with the frequent misuse of the word "intergalactic" convinces me that a lot of people really don't actually know what a galaxy is.

Few regular people understand that every star they can see is in our own galaxy.

 

[NateB]

Few regular people understand that every star they can see is in our own galaxy.

In high school a friend and I helped his dad and a few other amateur astronomer view at a small observatory at a YMCA camp. We set up one telescope to view Andromeda and unfortunately most of the kids thought it just looked like a smudge and didn't appreciate the distance. At least Saturn's rings still wowed them.

 

[cerving]

Another Galaxy (OK, Galaxie...)

 

[techrat]

Maybe we should refer to CBS news as a "newspaper".

 

[Hobie1dog]

S.S.D.Y.

 

[Blast it Tom!]

S.S.D.Y.

S.B.T.

 

[SecondRow]

Recently Webb made interesting observations on a world designated K2-18-b which is about 124 light years from us.

Apparently this qualifies as being in a distant galaxy... Come on CBS, do better!

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-k12-18b-hycean-planet-support-life-james-webb-space-telescope/

They must have corrected it, because I don’t see the error. Was it originally in the headline?

 

[kuririn]

They must have corrected it, because I don’t see the error. Was it originally in the headline?

Looks like they changed "distant galaxy" to "distant solar system".
Must have read this thread.

 

[Marc_G]

Yay, they fixed it. It's no longer in a galaxy far, far away!

 

[SecondRow]

A news media source that that recognizes and corrects its errors. Insanity.

 

[bjphoenix]

Today's journalism is focused on what do you look like and can you talk to a microphone.

My uncle was newspaper journalist 50 years ago. I know full well what he would say about current journalism.

 

[Marc_G]

While I disdain the original error, and lack of editorial oversight before publishing, I do applaud them eventually fixing it.

 

[cerving]

Chances are pretty good that whomever proofread the article had no more idea of what a "distant" galaxy was than the original author. They're not checking for content, they're checking to make sure that the article is reasonably lucid. It probably took some reader with more SME than the writer to point out their error. That's true with a lot of journalism... which is why technical pieces often get butchered.

 

[jqavins]

Which is why newspapers and broadcast outlets should employ SMEs for articles/pieces in various topic areas (a science editor in this case).

 

[techrat]

What funny is that larger news outlets used to employ specialists. For example CNN had Miles O'Brien, who was their science and technology 'expert' but they eventually got rid of these people to save money and they figured no one would notice. The NY Times had John Markoff, but I think he retired and was replaced by no one.

 

[jqavins]

For example CNN had Miles O'Brien, who was their science and technology 'expert...

Wow, great choice.


EDIT: But seriously, Miles O'Brien the journalist still does that job for The PBS News Hour.

 

[Hobie1dog]

another "ignore" thread

 

[ksaves2]

This combined with the frequent misuse of the word "intergalactic" convinces me that a lot of people really don't actually know what a galaxy is.

I learned what a galaxy was many years ago after attending several shows at the Adler Planetarium when I was a kid. Took me years to mature before I could wrap my mind around it though.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

The original article was probably written by an AI.