RE: PALEONEWS:High-flying dinosaur's wings clipped

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

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. wrote:

> What damage it apparently caused is all surface.  Indeed, the main take-home
> lessons from this event (e.g., don't publicize a specimen before the
> description makes it through peer review; don't trust specimens whose
> provenance datum is "Tuscon Rock Show"; etc.) have been overshadow by the
> anti-dinosaurian origins of birds folks crowing how this "Piltdown Dinosaur"
> overturns all previous studies.

Undoubtedly true, though the science magazines I've seen have largely 
gotten it right (even if we couldn't resist the "Piltdown bird" 
headline). THe problem journalists have is that stories require 
conflict, and that the conflict involves the birds-aren't dinosaurs 
crowd, whose statements sometimes go beyond the evidence. It's the 
general press that's screwed it up. The USA Today article was pretty 
bad as well.

One subtle but important issue for journalists is when the rational 
opposition becomes irrational crackpots and has to be cut out of the 
debate. Journalists are supposed to be fair, you're not supposed to 
stop one side of a debate. But in science the time comes when some 
arguments are no longer credible and have to be abandoned. Some 
editors will insist on quotes from the other side on an issue. 
(That's why you see the same tired old sources lined up claiming 
there's no such thing as global warming, for example.) I don't think 
the birds-aren't dinosaurs crowd has reached that low level of 
credibility yet, but they may wind up there if they try hard enough.

Jeff Hecht     Boston Correspondent    New Scientist magazine
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