Comments on: How the entire world's media got a Nature cover story totally, utterly wrong

By: Betsumei

Betsumei — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 16:49:00 +0000

Clearly he has sold his dream reader and is trying to cover it up.

By: Sylvia

Sylvia — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 17:51:00 +0000

I remember seeing this story come out! I remember finding the original source and noticing that it had nothing at all in common with what the press was writing about it. I pointed this fact out to people too excited to listen to me.

Glad he had a chance to explain to the public how utterly inaccurate the coverage actually was.

By: Amelia_G

Amelia_G — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 17:57:00 +0000

He’s a good narrator. I enjoyed this one.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 01:41:00 +0000

Isn’t it mostly a storage facility for students who still want to be supported by their parents but can’t really decide on a major?

By: MatthewL

MatthewL — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 01:30:00 +0000

Journalism school doesn’t teach journalism.

By: Jean Baptiste

Jean Baptiste — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 18:22:00 +0000

The “entire world’s media” includes almost everyone with Internet access nowadays. And we all, collectively and frequently, prove that we can get things just as wrong http://boingboing.net/2012/07/18/this-list-of-satans-hobbies.html as the Big Boys. Via exaggeration, embellishment, over-excitement, self-aggrandizing, and the desire to give the impression we knew about something cool long before everyone else.

By: airshowfan

airshowfan — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 14:42:00 +0000

How can a single person have not ONE but TWO such great stories? It’s just not fair.

By: Marcia Malory

Marcia Malory — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 14:30:00 +0000

If this is the BBC article, they did not get it wrong.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11635625

From the article:

“He admits that there is a very long way to go before this simple observation can be translated into a device to record dreams – a “dream catcher”. But he thinks it is a possibility – and he said he would like to try.”

By: Mantissa128

Mantissa128 — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 13:59:00 +0000

How crazy that everyone imagined he had a machine that could read dreams, when really it could only reconstruct what you were seeing in your visual field. I don’t know if there’s a ‘law’ for this, but any time something that seems science-fictiony comes true, it becomes ordinary and boring instead of golly-gee-whiz.

How futuristic it seemed to read in Omni in 1982 that by the turn of the century we might easily have a worldwide computer system into which you could type any question and get an answer. Now… [yawn]

By: Daniel Tobias

Daniel Tobias — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 13:51:00 +0000

”I never said any of the stuff that gets quoted as being from me, including this sentence.”
– Mark Twain (…or maybe Winston Churchill or Abraham Lincoln or Groucho Marx or Karl Marx or Woody Allen)

By: timquinn

timquinn — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 13:02:00 +0000

I’ve had specious dream recording for years. I would happily sell you a marketing license if you wish.

By: Dr David Alan Gilbert

Dr David Alan Gilbert — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 11:24:00 +0000

Watching the link; They *didn’t* get the front cover story of Nature wrong; they watched a video that the guy made as a promo before the Nature article came out, and he made the mistake of speculating in that video he made – and *that’s* why it happened; not because of a misunderstanding of Nature.

By: Paul Renault

Paul Renault — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 11:24:00 +0000

For me, I stopped trusting (no, ‘started despising’) any news organization (and it’s a looong list) that headlined the OJ Simpson trial as “The Trial of the Century”.

Nuremberg, anyone?

By: otterhead

otterhead — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 10:54:00 +0000

Well, I know what my next Kickstarter’s going to be.

By: peterkvt80

peterkvt80 — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 10:14:00 +0000

Moran Cerf doesn’t need to rob a bank. All he has to do is take advance orders on the Dream Recorder. The next time you have an out of control science story just send it to Maggie to publish on Boing Boing. Then at least all the important people will know the facts.

By: Theranthrope

Theranthrope — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 09:21:00 +0000

Incidentally, I’ve found a page with a wealth snarky media-centric quotes, for your snarky media-centric quoting needs:

http://www.quotegarden.com/media.html

By: Theranthrope

Theranthrope — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 09:18:00 +0000

“Journalists aren’t supposed to praise things. It’s a violation of work rules almost as serious as buying drinks with our own money or absolving the CIA of something.”
- P.J. O’Rourke

By: Theranthrope

Theranthrope — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 09:14:00 +0000

“Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.”
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Nathaniel Macon

By: Theranthrope

Theranthrope — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 09:11:00 +0000

“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed.”
- Mark Twain (…or maybe Thomas Jefferson)

By: ldobe

ldobe — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 08:20:00 +0000

And yet, papers sell what they attempt to convince people as the truth

By: nixiebunny

nixiebunny — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 06:47:00 +0000

Truth doesn’t sell papers.

By: ocker3

ocker3 — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 05:59:00 +0000

The one-upmanship reminds me of the scene in The Newsroom when they’re covering the Gabbie Giffords story, everyone desperately trying to provide unique information. I guess this situation is what happens if noone with any authority cares about what the truth is, they only care about the biggest headline and the most eyeballs.

By: JohnQPublic

JohnQPublic — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 05:29:00 +0000

The media would never put sensationalism above the public’s need to be well informed!!! … right?

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 05:13:00 +0000

I stopped trusting the BBC when I noticed that their “quotes” from US rednecks consistently used words like “yob” and “peckish”.

By: codedreamer

codedreamer — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 05:02:00 +0000

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

By: nixiebunny

nixiebunny — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 04:47:00 +0000

Journalism school doesn’t teach science.

By: benher

benher — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 04:05:00 +0000

LIAR! You’re hoarding the dream machine for yourself!!!

By: MarlboroTestMonkey7

MarlboroTestMonkey7 — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 04:04:00 +0000

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY !

By: EH

EH — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 03:50:00 +0000

Ooh I wonder who’s gonna play Natalie Wood’s part.

By: Palomino

Palomino — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 03:32:00 +0000

Nightmarish.