RE: when dinos ruled

[Jeff Hecht <jhecht@world.std.com>]

Tom Holtz wrote:
>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.

Speaking as someone in the business of trying to convey scientific
information to the public, you can't expect too much, but you should expect
better than this one sounds.

Most of us are here on the dinosaur list because we love the animals and
details about them. The problem in writing for a general audience is that
you can't convey all that wealth of detail. You don't have the time, space,
or words to fit it all. Some things are inevitably going to be
oversimplified when you get 120 words to explain a whole paper in Science
or Nature, or an on-screen minute to explain some complex ecological
interactions. Good paleoart can do a wonderful job of describing animals on
film/video/the printed page, but it doesn't convey the inherent
uncertainties. (And we all know the questions about "were dinosaurs really
that color?")

That limitation aside, there are tremendous differences in the quality
control over the final content. A good producer or editor will make sure
that the names are spelled or pronounced correctly, and that the animals
are identified correctly. I can understand such errors in daily news
reports produced under tight deadlines but not in documentaries, assuming
that the producers have the final cut. (Giving broadcasters the final cut
to make room for ads or fund=raising is a recipe for disaster.)



Jeff Hecht     Boston Correspondent    New Scientist magazine
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