'Ida' Fossil Hype Went Too Far | LiveScience
The debacle started to unfold when the finding, cloaked in secrecy while a
media engine was being primed, leaked out in The Wall Street Journal, and
then in London's Daily Mail. Then The New York Times wrote about the media
circus that was to ensue. All this was published before anyone but the
research team (and its tightly controlled media team) knew the details of the finding.
"The P.R. campaign on this fossil is I think more of a story than the fossil
itself," anthropologist Matt Cartmill of Duke University told Moskowitz. "It's a
very beautiful fossil, but I didn't see anything in this paper that told me
anything decisive that was new."
Ida's unveiling was highly scripted (with some "Barnum and Bailey aspects,"
said paleontologist Richard Kay of Duke University).
Ida the fossil will reveal her secrets slowly | Adam Rutherford | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
"WORLD RENOWNED SCIENTISTS REVEAL A REVOLUTIONARY SCIENTIFIC FIND
THAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING", boomed the press release (their caps).
Wow. What could it be? Cold fusion? A cure for AIDS? Life in Uranus? The
press conference promised to "unveil a major historic scientific find" that
will "address a long-standing scientific puzzle."
I briefly met Darwinius (also known as Ida) in late 2008, shown a photo by
the television production company who were lucky enough to be filming when
the fossil was acquired. It was a special moment. The build-up was shrouded
in secrecy. I had signed a legal agreement not to talk to anyone about it. I
was taken into a room and the image dramatically revealed. It was like being
shown an Area 51 alien.
Birmingham Atheism Examiner: Darwinius masillae: journalists and creationists embarrass themselves yet again
Darwinius masillae is not a missing link. In fact, there is no such thing as a
missing link. This image is mainly a product of media hype that propagates
the idea that there is a single bridge between modern and primitive species.
With the hype has come a spate of creationists once again crying foul. While
many of them buy straight into the hype generated over the find, others
seem determined to go farther than that, attempting to caricaturize or simply
evangelize the whole discussion.
you will find a range of opinions swinging from an obvious insistence of
misconstruing the facts to outright denial to the assertion that this is yet
another sign of the “end times”. These nonsensical proclamations and
refutations only serve to exacerbate the damage done by lazy scientific
journalism pervading the mainstream media, causing one to conclude that
either these creationist writers really are as credulous and unimaginative as
they appear, or they are cleverly disingenuous charlatans who rely on said
journalistic laziness to help keep those who support them as ignorant of the
facts and as forthright with their wallets as possible.