Running the Big Story Too Soon

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

The news media tend to get pieces of information, jump the fence, and gallop for the open prairie. Or to their editors so they can get a story published. They know that people go wild with partial information and rumors, so the media keep doing it. Especially the liberal media.

When dealing with sensational news stories, especially regarding evolution or deep time, caution is recommended.
Credit: Unsplash / rawpixel
"Trump may cancel the 2020 elections!"

Oh, shut up. Some of us are intelligent enough to know that's not possible. You're an insult to humanity, Skippy.

It's nice when some restraint is used and we're informed that a story is developing, or "preliminary reports indicate..." and so on.



People like to get all het up, don't they? Especially leftists, who have protests, smash windows, overturn cars, set dumpster on fire, and that sort of thing. Even when they have no idea what it's about.

Here's a short video I made from audio of The Chris Plante Show, excerpting the July 24, 2018 episode. A crazy subway story kept on a-changing in a very short time. Although it was close by, the events were not clear:


Less violent but with great fervor is the secular science media, especially when they try to spin something so that it is "evidence for evolution" or deep time. I've had people approach me and I can almost hear the desperation as they type, "This is proof of evolution. It can be refuted, right?" So many times, I've had to counsel patience and caution. Important details come out later and the story is not so important after all, or flaws in evolutionary pronouncements can be examined.

Seems that retractions or refutations for some stories just plop on the trail and the public doesn't even notice. Well, they may remember the initial excitement that "the Higgs boson proves the Big Bang", or that the universe shouldn't even exist. Sometimes, we'll read about how a new discovery requires rewriting the evolutionary timeline, or something similar. These seem to be forgotten by most people.

Ever notice how people get to gnawing on an old bone and won't let go, even when the evidence is overwhelming that the story is just no good? Evidence that our alleged ancestor Lucy was just an extinct ape keeps on accumulating, Neanderthals were fully human, "junk" DNA, and other established "facts" of science have been largely abandoned. Yet Darwin's disciples cling to them anyway.

One feckless anti-creationist really took the rag off the bush. He is enamored with the ‘Oumuamua asteroid, calling it the "death knell for young earth creationism" and using other sensationalistic terms like "totally falsifies young earth creationism" and "Young earth creationism destroyed by an alien asteroid". Not hardly! He apparently knew more about it than the scientists (who didn't give it a great deal of attention, knowing they didn't have much to work with). Worse, he appealed to faulty authority from (ir)RationalWiki so he could have permission to ignore evidence that conflicted with his presumptions. Eventually, he accepted newer speculations that it's not an asteroid, but a comet. Probably. Of course, in his mind, it still destroys the entirety of biblical creation science!

Don't be putting up your hatred, biases, and so forth as motivators for spreading stories. Especially when knowledgeable folks point out your lack of knowledge and you make yourself look foolish, you savvy?

So, people need to learn to use some restraint. The secular science industry wants your attention and money, so they keep pumping out big stories. As for me, I'll just set back and wait a while. (It's going to take a while for the disputes over Homo naledi to settle, so I'm backing off from those stories for a spell.) Also, I suggest checking things out when they've been around for a while to see if the stories have been modified or even refuted. Now, what's this about water on Mars?

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