RE: when dinos ruled

["Stewart, Dwight" <Dwight.Stewart@VLSI.com>]

   Agreed, but this is true of most science documentaries.  I've seldom seem
one about the universe, cosmology, relativity, or quantum physics that
wasn't filled with inaccuracies.  And, when "authorities" are mentioned
or quoted, it's always the same authorities.  For some reason the media
seems
to think that when they present a scientific subject to the public, that
they
have to "dumb" the subject matter down.  I simply don't buy their logic.

Dwight  

        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. [SMTP:tholtz@geol.umd.edu]
        Sent:   Friday, August 27, 1999 10:33 AM
        To:     _smichael@excite.com
        Cc:     dinosaur@usc.edu
        Subject:        RE: when dinos ruled

        > -----Original Message-----
        > From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On
Behalf Of
        > Sherry Michael
        >
        > While paleontology is a very generous science compared to many, we
can do
        > more. Instead of bitching about how innacurate these shows are,
spread
        > *good* information however you can. Donate a good dinosaur book to
school
        > library. Speak to the public as much as possible. Open up the
        > doors a little
        > bit.
        >
        > -Sherry
        > (off soapbox)

        Me, hopping on...

        By my observation, paleontologists in general and dinosaur
paleontologists
        in particular are exceptional in getting to the public, speaking at
        everything from local rock clubs to universities to big museums.  My
        colleagues who work on petrology and hydrology and such do not seem
to have
        the opportunity for such presentations.

        What galls me is that we DO give as much good data to the
documentaries as
        we can!!  When you see thirty seconds of a "talking head" on a show,
that is
        distilled from a much longer interview, sometimes hours long.  On
top of
        that, plenty of faxes and fedexs are exchanged to provide accurate
        photographs, drawings, diagrams, etc.

        Then, via the magic that is filmmaking, this gets chopped up into
the same
        hash that is always presented...  Professional actors are hired to
narrate,
        who somehow go about mispronouncing our names (Cathy "Forrester"?)
and the
        names of our favorite critters.  (Yeah, okay, I would imagine that
        documentary narration is a LOW priority for most actors, and they
probably
        did it in just a take or two, but they could try).  Instead of
seeking to
        educate, the emphasis is on entertainment, and those who do seek to
be
        educated by these shows can be misled (as witnessed by email on the
list
        earlier this week).

        Yes, by all means, make the shows entertaining.  Yes, try and bring
the
        public up to date with some of the latest discoveries.  I personally
had no
        problem with the *concept* of the show: it was a great idea.  The
problems I
        (and from their postings, others) on the list have with the show was
the
        *execution*: it didn't have to sacrifice accuracy for entertainment.

        No documentary will every be perfect, and all of them "cheat" to a
certain
        degree to produce something interesting to watch.  However, there
are
        documentaries on other topics on PBS or TLC or Discovery or Animal
Planet
        which are both fun and accurate.  Let's hope that future dinosaur
        documentaries will try to achieve this goal.

                        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                        Vertebrate Paleontologist
        Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
        University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                        College Park, MD  20742
        http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
        http://www.inform.umd.edu/SCHOLAR/programs/elt.html
        Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
        Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796