WHAT'S NEW Friday, March 26, 2004

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 26 Mar 04   Washington, DC

1. BUSTED!  THE SORDID STORY BEHIND OUR FABRICATED INTERVIEWS.  
The heat is on.  A year ago, when New York Times reporter Jayson
Blair was fired for fabricating interviews, we at WN shrugged it
off.  It's not like it was the first time a reporter made up a
story.  Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke got a Pulitzer Prize
for interviewing people that didn't exist. That was 14 years ago.
More recently, Stephen Glass was caught fabricating stories for
New Republic.  We still didn't take it seriously; nobody reads
New Republic anyway.  But USA Today is America's most-read paper,
and last week, star reporter Jack Kelly was outed for making news
up.  On top of that, a WN reader googled "veteran NASA astronaut
Ann Thropojinic" (WN 12 Mar 04), and came up with zip.  Are we
about to be exposed?  It's time to come clean: WN has fabricated
interviews for years.  It gives us full control of a story, and
it's highly addictive.  Having no experience at confession, WN
turned to a professional, Mia Culpa, for help. "It's best to be
indirect," she mused, "perhaps you could reveal the truth in a
whimsical interview with a fictitious expert."  Thanks Mia.

2. HUBBLE REPAIR MISSION: "JOHN HENRY WAS A STEEL DRIVIN' MAN." 
NASA is buried under a blizzard of appeals by people from every
walk to save Hubble.  The four Hubble repair missions are often
invoked as proof of the need for a human presence in space, but
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe left himself no room to back down
from his decision to let Hubble die rather than risk a shuttle
repair mission.  There is a way out.  Why not build a robot that
could make the repairs?  In principle, a machine can be made to
perform any mechanical task.  The implications go beyond the
beloved telescope.  In the end, the machine will always win.  It
would be an update of the legendary contest between John Henry
and the Iron Monster.  "And he died with a hammer in his hand."

3. FAKE NEWS: "IN WASHINGTON, I'M KAREN RYAN SIGNING OFF."
Eighteen journalism organization have signed a statement asking
Health and Human Services to stop using video news releases that
imitate television news stories.  The Bush Administration had
paid people to pose as journalists praising the new Medicare law. 

4. ADVERTISING: "WE BRING CLARITY TO COMPEXITY," THE AD CLAIMED.
A full page ad for Assurant, Inc. in the New York Times had a
colorful picture of a yo-yo, signifying I know not what.  It
explained it this way:  

     Gravity: Attractive force between bodies proportional
     to their masses and the distance between them.


THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.  
Opinions are the author's and not necessarily shared by the
University of Maryland, but they should be.
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