Comments | sanitypurge: CERN - Doomsday Unmasked

sanitypurge

CERN - Doomsday Unmasked

Sep 10, 2008 20:33

Modern media is a rather vexing creation. They provide you with headlines, the two major competing points of view (for balance, I suppose) and some vague quotes to match. The Fifth Estate fails us completely when it comes to providing in depth information on an issue. Consider CERN, if you will. A budding you high energy particle smasher at the ( Read more... )

Comments 7

donnaidh_sidhe September 11 2008, 05:11:26 UTC

Please. It's "Hawking."

sanitypurge September 11 2008, 05:42:44 UTC

Now I'm not entirely sure what the standard etiquette is when it comes to correcting someone on their own Blog, but I'm pretty sure that one is supposed at least appear to make an effort to not be condescending.

geek_dragon September 11 2008, 06:16:55 UTC

I wasn't worried at all, just excited, since I have a friend there.
I think they got the world could be destroyed angle to make it flashy. Just because it's in the news doesn't mean it's true.

sanitypurge September 13 2008, 02:13:19 UTC

I do know that part of their aims (espeacially with their headlines) was to capture interest through sensationalism. However, I think it's rather iresponsible for them to present such dire warnings, yet not go into further detail.

I've heard at least 1 person who comitted suicide because they were araid of CERN. If they had actually bothered to present more thorough news stories, that could have been avoided.

geek_dragon September 13 2008, 05:03:01 UTC

I don't think it was CERNS's fault. The media wrote the stories and published them. It's not the medias fault either. I agree that if news is going to post a statistic or a dire prediction the authors should link to or provide more depth coverage. People need to learn to dig for info too though.

Journalists need more science training. The CERN people probably explained that it was unlikely, or the journalist brought it up, and the journalist probably heard "blah, blah, blah, endof the world" That or an editor or manager type cut it down.

As for the girl committing suicide, she obviously had problems.

sanitypurge September 14 2008, 02:22:08 UTC

Ultimately, an individual is responsible for their own actions. However, I think you let both CERN and the media off the hook FAR too easily. I state my case as such ( ... )

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