How can news organisations get things so incredibly wrong?

Mark · 25-01-2007, 00:10

Up to this lunchtime, News agencies across the country were extolling the virtues of Microwave ovens for killing bugs on kitchen sponges. Here's an example:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...562977,00.html

The BBC even showed a report in which a reporter put a kitchen sponge in a microwave oven and turned it on. Nice move.

By teatime, the story had taken a rather different turn, as this BBC article shows (this is the very same article that at lunchtime was extolling the above virtues - how things change):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6293735.stm

Well duh, of course it's a bloody dangerous idea and someone's already nearly killed themselves trying it. A 'damp' sponge won't contain nearly enough water to absorb the microwaves in a modern oven, so you'll either super-heat the sponge (with the possibility of causing a fire as a result), or slowly cook the microwave oven itself because the microwaves have to go somewhere.

I think this has to be one of the quickest U-turns by the media as a whole ever.

So, what do you think of this, and how much do you trust the media?

25-01-2007, 00:10	#1
Mark Screaming Orgasm Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Newbury Posts: 15,194	How can news organisations get things so incredibly wrong? Up to this lunchtime, News agencies across the country were extolling the virtues of Microwave ovens for killing bugs on kitchen sponges. Here's an example: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...562977,00.html The BBC even showed a report in which a reporter put a kitchen sponge in a microwave oven and turned it on. Nice move. By teatime, the story had taken a rather different turn, as this BBC article shows (this is the very same article that at lunchtime was extolling the above virtues - how things change): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6293735.stm Well duh, of course it's a bloody dangerous idea and someone's already nearly killed themselves trying it. A 'damp' sponge won't contain nearly enough water to absorb the microwaves in a modern oven, so you'll either super-heat the sponge (with the possibility of causing a fire as a result), or slowly cook the microwave oven itself because the microwaves have to go somewhere. I think this has to be one of the quickest U-turns by the media as a whole ever. So, what do you think of this, and how much do you trust the media?