[meteorite-list] Darryl's edited NYT letter

From: Darryl Pitt <darryl_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:57:20 -0400
Message-ID: <35C9579B-68E8-4AAA-8F08-09A4017A70F0_at_dof3.com>

Exactly right....and truth be told, I was embarrassed. Janine had to calm me down a bit this morning. ;-)

All they had to do was leave in the term "hot" deserts and it would have been fine.


Anyway, thank you, Rob!



On Apr 12, 2011, at 3:40 PM, Matson, Robert D. wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> The main problem with the Times' editing of Darryl's submission is that
> they altered his factually correct letter into an inaccurate (or at
> best,
> misleading) one. The following sentences appeared in the Times' edited
> version:
>
> "As a result of the harvesting done by Bedouins, Berbers and others, 32
> specimens from Mars and 43 specimens from the Moon have been discovered
> in the deserts since the mid-1990s. The number of such specimens
> recovered by scientists beforehand? Not one. Since the mid-1990s?
> Just four."
>
> Now compare this with what Darryl actually submitted:
>
> " ... as a result of the harvesting done by Bedouins, Berbers and
> others,
> 32 istinct specimens of Mars and 43 distinct specimens of the Moon, as
> well as other exotic samples, have been discovered in the hot deserts
> since the mid-1990s---all of which have undergone study. Conversely, not
> one such specimen was recovered by scientists IN THESE REGIONS [emphasis
> mine] before this time, and since then scientists have recovered only
> four such specimens."
>
> This significant error of omission invites researchers "in-the-know" to
> accuse Darryl of being uninformed, and by inference unfairly calling
> into question his credentials for opining on the subject. This is the
> problem with journalists uneducated in scientific disciplines -- they
> don't appreciate the nuances introduced by the seemingly harmless
> removal of a word here, or a short phrase there. The sciences are not
> like prose: every word is usually there for a reason.
>
> --Rob
>
>
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Received on Tue 12 Apr 2011 03:57:20 PM PDT