[net.columbia] NASA news briefings

karn (11/14/82)

If you get a chance, listen to the end-of-shift flight briefings via the
900 number.  Its very enlightening.

Right now, a couple of hotshot journalists are driving the power failure
subject deep into the ground.  They seem to think their holy mission
is to uncover sinister government coverups and plots.  They keep asking
the same questions over and over again, and the flight directors keep
giving the same perfectly acceptable answers: that it was not critical
to the mission, that there was no reason to wake up the crew just to
tell them, etc. etc.

But some journalists are never satisfied.  I have a lot of admiration for the
flight directors who seem to remain candid and unflappable in the face of
all this crap.

I am really disgusted with the shoddy journalism practices that cover
the shuttle missions.  Even when a network condescends to granting the
masses a tiny shred of a video transmission, some so-called "science
editor" insists on talking over the audio with comments like "Gee, I wonder
what that is that the camera is looking at", when if they would just SHUT
UP AND LISTEN, they might find out.  They might even learn something (but
I doubt it.)

Phil Karn

PS. There. I feel much better already.

stocker (11/15/82)

For those of you that didn't get up early this morning or for some other reason
missed what was supposed to be the EVA (spacewalk) this morning, you didn't
miss much as both the suits Joe Allen was to use had pressurization trouble.
They still might make it tonight but it doesn't sound promising.  Joe talked
to Houston about it but TV watchers couldn't tell what they were saying because
the stupid commentators talked right over them trying to tell us what Joe was
saying.  NBC went right to a commercial in the middle of the video, CBS had
a habit of showing live pictures from their commentator in Houston (BIG DEAL).
Amen too Phil Karn and his complaints about shuttle news coverage.

dave
pur-ee!stocker

kline (11/15/82)

#R:eagle:-63000:uicsovax:2400002:000:574
uicsovax!kline    Nov 15 08:11:00 1982


   Journalists are famous for getting scientists and engineers steamed.
Another good example I heard was at one of the press briefings for
Voyager II. This was right after they had discovered the `braided' F-ring
around Saturn, and the two `shepherd' moons S26 and S27. To add to the
sensationalism of the photos from the spacecraft by saying that the F-ring
didn't obey the laws of physics. One of the JPL scientists exploded with "Of
course they obey the laws of physics!!!" He was really hot, too. The
journalist, unmiffed, left the comment in the report to his editor.