Responsibility

People who write for magazines, newspapers, TV and any serious media (not the tabloids) have a responsibility to be correct and accurate. This unfortunately rarely happens. I just was flipping through a copy of the AAA magazine named "Going Places". The editor-in-chief, of all people, wrote a short article on the "stories" she had heard about he equator. A couple of these stories were that water will go down the drain clockwise or counter-clockwise depending on which side of the equator you stand on. The other was about standing an egg on end at the equator.

She says that she tested these ideas at the equator. Good. She tested the myths. But she didn't really. She was tricked and applied no critical thinking or scientific testing. So, she wrote an article saying that these myths are true, which they are not. While it is good that she tested (or thinks she did) these ideas, it's too bad she didn't have the thinking ability to go one step further.

Being the editor, who is going to question her? If one of her writers did this would she question it? When I read something in a magazine, or newspaper, or see it on TV that is so wrong, should I trust anything else by these people? This just happened to be something I knew about. What about all of the things I don't know about. Do I have to research everything I read? Maybe I do. And maybe everyone should question what they read. No, not maybe, absolutely!