[meteorite-list] Meteorite hunter takes £10,000 rock to auction - And a particularly BAD quote

From: Graham Ensor <graham.ensor_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 22:59:18 +0100
Message-ID: <CAJkn+kaKgYDTLhvCYeyQRW-r=dy0Zv2v2fhtOvCAD_zqbsmbhQ_at_mail.gmail.com>

In my experience of complaining about the rubbish reported in
newspapers I have never even had the courtesy of a reply...just not
worth it....they may listen to Rob perhaps?

Graham

On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 8:01 PM, Anne Black <impactika at aol.com> wrote:
> Thank you Malcolm and Mendy,
>
> Yes, the Guardian joins the NewYork Times on our list of newspapers to
> avoid. Personally the only publication I will give an interview to anymore
> is Astronomy Magazine. Thank you David Eicher!
> Maybe the UK members of the MetList (Graham, Martin, Jim, Peter,.....) will
> contact the Guardian, the Auction House and Rob Elliott and explain to them
> how wrong they are.
> And Chelyabinsk, I have plenty of them, the 3kilos mass I presented on
> "Picture of the Day" is sold, but I have more (thin-sections too!) and yes,
> they certainly can be shipped from Russia.
>
>
> Anne M. Black
> www.IMPACTIKA.com
> IMPACTIKA at aol.com
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Malcolm S Pringle <mpringle at MIT.EDU>
> To: meteorite-list <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Mon, Aug 19, 2013 9:41 am
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Meteorite hunter takes ?10,000 rock to auction
> - And a particularly BAD quote
>
>
> Hi, all --
>
> Further to Mendy's comments -- I'm a list newbie (I joined to help acquire a
> mini-teaching collection to use in K-12 schools in the Boston area) -- but I
> had seen the original article, and found it amusing enough that I almost
> pointed it out to you all a couple of days ago:
>
> http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/aug/16/hambleton-chelyabinsk-meteorite-auction-rob-elliott
>
> In other words, this was in the Guardian, supposedly one of the more
> reputable
> newspapers worldwide (for example, the lead investigatory paper in the
> Snowden/NSA stories), attributed to the Press Association (supposedly one of
> the UK's leading news organizations, http://www.pressassociation.com).
> There
> wasn't an option to comment on the article directly, and the Press
> Association
> doesn't appear to have an ombudsman, but here is the press officer /
> communications manager, in case anyone with more experience/local UK
> perspective wants to take up the gauntlet:
>
> sean.ottley at pressassociation.com
>
> The most amusing misinformation seemed to be in the figure caption:
>
> "Other items to be auctioned include one of the only pieces of the Russian
> meteorite ?Chelyabinsk to have made it to the west"
>
> [well, not quite accurate, with like 300+ active auctions on ebay as of this
> morning alone ...]
>
> ;-)
>
> As usual, reiterates that we have to be careful what info we get from even
> the
> "good" news outlets. Also, as Mendy suggests, how careful we need to be
> when
> we ourselves are the source of information?
>
> -- Malcolm
>
> Quoting Mendy Ouzillou <ouzillou at yahoo.com>:
>
>>
> http://www.astrowatch.net/2013/08/meteorite-hunter-takes-10000-rock-to.html
>>
>>
>> Dear list members,
>>
>> This is an interesting article but what really caught my eye was the
>> following quote: "The Russian government told the local residents
>> that they would arrest anyone selling pieces of the meteorite
>> overseas, so my contact had to disguise the airmail package and mix
>> the meteorites with pieces of electronic equipment to hide them,"
>>
>>
>> The intricacies of Russian export laws are as dense as as any Russian
>> novel and less decipherable as highlighted by some of our own
>> conversations regarding the topic. This quote unfortunately removes
>> any doubt that the Chelyabinsk meteorites were smuggled out and only
>> reinforces the misconception that our (a)vocation is run like a black
>> market.
>>
>> I am sure that the actual interview was filled with more details and
>> clarifying comments, but that is clearly NOT what was printed.
>> Dealing with the press is a skill like any other that requires
>> training and experience. At the very least ask for the questions in
>> advance and respond by email if at all possible. The most important
>> thing to do is to ask for the ability to review and make edits to the
>> article BEFORE agreeing to doing the interview.
>>
>> Though you will figure out easily who was quoted, this is not about
>> the individual. I was not there during the interview (obviously) and
>> can't say what was or was not said. I really just want to highlight
>> this story as a cautionary tale.
>>
>> As a final thought, not all reporters are bad or out to get people.
>> They have a job to do and are motivated by a different set of
>> requirements than what we may understand. They want a good story and
>> you (may) want the public recognition. This is a symbiotic
>> relationship, but if you do not understand how the game is played,
>> you will likely get played.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Mendy Ouzillou
>> ______________________________________________
>>
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>
>
> ======================================================================
> If you don't feed the teachers, they will eat the children.
> Anonymous teacher, told to Linda Albert, Cooperative Discipline, 1996.
> ======================================================================
> But none of that will transform education if we fail to cherish --
> and challenge -- the human heart that is the source of good teaching.
> Parker J Palmer, The Courage to Teach, 1998.
> ======================================================================
> Malcolm S Pringle, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
> Massachusetts Inst of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave Bldg 54-1210
> Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 USA Cell: 617-319-6584
> ======================================================================
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>
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Received on Mon 19 Aug 2013 05:59:18 PM PDT