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(meteorobs) Media Ignorance

Hello all:

    New to this list,  we subscribed a few days ago with the Leonid
meteor showers in mind, to hopefully get some viewing tips, etc., and
are enjoying the posts.  I also managed to see the fireball last evening
around 7 PM EST, and was quite dismayed this morning to hear our local
radio station (CJXY 95.3 FM, "Y95" in Hamilton, ONT) refer to this as
possibly the beginning of a major show of Leonid meteors tonight, on
their 7:30 AM newscast.  Trying to be helpful, my wife Debbie called and
tried to clarify that the fireball was a separate entity and had nothing
to do with the Leonids; indeed, the constellation Leo wasn't even
visible at this time, not to mention the fact that the fireball came
from TOTALLY THE WRONG DIRECTION... but I should point out, she wasn't
talking to the news director, just the on-air hosts, Scott and Lori.
She also mentioned that no one was sure at that time that it had
actually been a meteor, but could have been space junk re-entering the
atmosphere, for example.

    Hearing the same mistake yet again at 8 AM, she called in just
before 8:30 AM.  Again, trying to be helpful, she told them about the
NASA website with the updated information saying that it probably wasn't
a Leonid, and this time the hosts were curt, and ended the conversation
with "Look, was it a light?", to which Debbie replied, a bit puzzled
"Well, yes"; he then added, "Was it a shooting star?", to which she
replied "Well, they're not sure, it might have been...".  He then stated
"Well, that's good enough for us!" and abruptly hung up!  And I'm sure
this wasn't an isolated incident, if anyone else out there tried to be
"helpful", they may have run into the same arrogance; I guess since
we're not the "news guys", we can't know what we're talking about.  It
also perturbs me that the media will tell a sensational story even if it
means ignoring what might be the truth, because the truth is sometimes
boring.

    Oh well, at least we tried... but it makes you wonder how much of
the news you hear really happened, or how much has been omitted or even
embellished just for the sake of selling a story.

    Hoping the skies will stay clear tonight... we'll be looking for
real Leonid fireballs!!!

    Mike Csorbay and Debbie Kinloch
    Near Hamilton, Ontario, CANADA.

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