Tuesday, December 22, 2009

NY Daily News Staff Writers Are Dumb As Bricks

Above: Maybe venomous, but NOT a spitter!

Check out this short piece "attempting" to condense the recent story on potentially venomous sinornithosaurs. The piece was written by New York Daily News staff writer Ethan Sacks, who does not understand one word of the subject he's covering.

The headline:
"Venomous velociraptor: Scientists discover sinornithosaurus dinosaur spit poison at prey"

*HEADDESK*

I can guarantee you with 100% certainty no scientist or press release even remotely said anything like this.

What they probably told him/what he probably read on other news sites: "The dinosaur Sinornithosaurus, a relative of Velociraptor, was venomous, like the spitting dinosaurs in Jurassic Park."

What Sacks heard: "Velociraptor's relatives were venom-spitting dinosaurs, like in Jurassic Park!"

Way to make the world a dumber place, Ethan Sacks.

5 comments:

  1. Most news reports on dinosaurs just aren't worth taking too seriously...

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  2. You know what's even worse? My local newspaper called Sinornithosaurus a bird when describing the discovery. Of course, since the discovery was headed by Larry Martin, how exactly is that surprising?

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  3. I guess research was too challenging of a task for some newspapers reporters.

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  4. They are almost as bad as grad students and other wanna bees.

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  5. OH MY GOD!
    This what happens when the PRESS thinks they can just write anything.

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