Modern journalism celebrates Apollo 11, badly
The image on the right came from the twitter feed of the Daily News in New York. It has since been removed, and it is also possible that it was a prank. Nonetheless, in less than fifty words this modern epitome of today’s journalism gets practically everything wrong about Neil Armstrong’s first step on the Moon and the first words he spoke.
John Glenn?
“One giant step for mankind”?
The tweet also calls the moon a “planet”, which I can live with since eventually the definition of a planet will include the Moon. Still, an educated person in this context would have used “world” instead.
I can’t imagine the level of incompetent education someone would have to go through to write this and not realize how much of it is embarrassingly wrong. Nor can I imagine how it is possible for everyone at the Daily News to not realize it as well, unless they are equally uneducated.
Tonight I begin an eight day series of evening pauses dedicated to the Apollo 11 mission, showing the key moments, as they happened. Rather than read some bad and often incorrect interpretation of this singular moment in human history, I am going to give you a chance to live it, as I did, fifty years ago.
Hat tip Jeff Bliss for the Daily News tweet. My readers know that I will not have anything to do with Twitter (which likely reduces my webpage traffic and likely my income as well), but I think it is designed to force people to act like a hateful and childish mob. Or exhibit their ignorance, which this tweet does so well.
My ethics will not allow me there. My observations repeatedly confirm for me the wisdom of this decision.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The image on the right came from the twitter feed of the Daily News in New York. It has since been removed, and it is also possible that it was a prank. Nonetheless, in less than fifty words this modern epitome of today’s journalism gets practically everything wrong about Neil Armstrong’s first step on the Moon and the first words he spoke.
John Glenn?
“One giant step for mankind”?
The tweet also calls the moon a “planet”, which I can live with since eventually the definition of a planet will include the Moon. Still, an educated person in this context would have used “world” instead.
I can’t imagine the level of incompetent education someone would have to go through to write this and not realize how much of it is embarrassingly wrong. Nor can I imagine how it is possible for everyone at the Daily News to not realize it as well, unless they are equally uneducated.
Tonight I begin an eight day series of evening pauses dedicated to the Apollo 11 mission, showing the key moments, as they happened. Rather than read some bad and often incorrect interpretation of this singular moment in human history, I am going to give you a chance to live it, as I did, fifty years ago.
Hat tip Jeff Bliss for the Daily News tweet. My readers know that I will not have anything to do with Twitter (which likely reduces my webpage traffic and likely my income as well), but I think it is designed to force people to act like a hateful and childish mob. Or exhibit their ignorance, which this tweet does so well.
My ethics will not allow me there. My observations repeatedly confirm for me the wisdom of this decision.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Tweet now deleted, but searching ‘NY daily news apollo 11’ brings up the comments.
At least they put in the “a”.
As Thomas Jefferson said, the man who reads only newspapers is more ignorant than the man who reads nothing at all. One could wish that Jefferson had enough introspection to realize that his own newspapers were just as guilty…..
In defense of Twitter, it highly depends on the bubbles you enter or build around you. I use it to read industry updates and get links to technical and scientific papers in my domains of interest. No hate at all. The occasional virtue-signalling scientist or entrepreneur who otherwise does interesting work is easy to tolerate. After some experimenting I know what to exclude/stay away from to have a productive social media experience without losing too much time and happiness.
Ian C. Maybe there is a use for this tool, but as it is being used by the bulk of our modern intellectual class, it is corrupting our society very badly. Based on what I see, the negatives far far far outweigh the benefits.
Like anything similar these social media platforms are tools, modes of communication. However these tools are like no other tools that have ever been encountered by human beings.
These tools not only are useful but they also give live real time feedback usually to a third party who is in the process of manipulating the user in unseen ways.
Give a man a hammer and he could either build a house with it or hit himself over the head with it. This social media hammer however may in time be able to decide whether you should either build a house or hit yourself over the head, and then help you decide that maybe Marx was no such a bad economics philosopher, and Hitler never endeavored to rid the earth of the Jews, or maybe the Second Amendment needs to be scratched, and certain words or phrases should not be allowed, and anyone who writes a Conservative slanted post needs to be erased, etc, etc.
It really could go anywhere. Where ever it is decided that it should go by those who sit behind the screens in those companies that have a certain political belief system that they use to decide what they decide, just like is happening right now.
Google IS Big Brother, Facebook IS Big Brother, and in time they may become much more powerful than the Americans who might deem it appropriate to control or break it all up.
I think what will first be done, like Wayne suggested, for their “Special” Congressional liability protection to be removed. Probably a good start.
He’s probably employed as a “fact checker” at CNN or Washington Post
This could help explain why we have so much fake news.
The only reason that anyone caught this bogus reporting is that so many people know the truth that this could not stand up to a responding public.
With newer news, few people know the truth of the actual events, so reporters are able to get away with their bogus reporting.