Re: Avian origin questioned by John Ruben

[Jeff Hecht <jeff@jeffhecht.com>]

At 5:04 PM -0400 8/3/09, dinoboygraphics@aol.com wrote:
>>
>That's right...there isn't any mention at all of birds origination from 
>dinosaurs or anywhere else in the paper.  Why Oregon State would release a 
>press statement who's main theme are claims not made in the actual paper is 
>beyond me (although I'll blame a scientifically illiterate PR person taking 
>Ruben's line and not checking the statement against anything).  It's even more 
>sad that Science Daily, an ostensibly respectable source of online science 
>news, would simply publish the press release more or less wholesale without 
>any additional investigation/reporting to a public that doesn't have the means 
>to check up.  But that's the reality; the SD article and the press release are 
>literally making things up that are not in the peer-reviewed paper. 

To clarify the workings of Science Daily:
Science Daily does not write news stories - it adapts and edits press releases, 
as you can read at http://www.sciencedaily.com/contribute.htm where they invite 
contributions from university and research organization press officers. They do 
try to vet them. They write "we try to select those which we think would be of 
most interest to our readers. Basically, that means any new research finding 
(especially those tied to a peer-reviewed journal article) or description of a 
new or newsworthy research project." Some university press releases are very 
good. Many are not.
-- 
Jeff Hecht, science & technology writer
jeff@jeffhecht.com or jhecht@nasw.org
525 Auburn St., Auburndale, MA 02466 USA
tel. 617-965-3834  http://www.jeffhecht.com