- Hi there Jeff,
-
- A very troubling follow-up to that BBC report I sent
you the other day.
-
- Yikes -- what in blazes is going on here?!?
-
- http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.2
040719.wstrauss0720/BNStory/Front/
-
- EXCERPT: 'Accordingly, hundreds of journalists began
telephoning ESA for more information and were referred to Guido De Marchi,
an astronomer who also works as a Holland-based press officer for ESA.
His corporate-approved response to the BBC report of microbe-produced ammonia
was six degrees north of damning and 12 kilometers beyond dismissive.
"It is not true; it is a hoax," he told me Friday "The
instrument aboard the Mars Express has not looked for ammonia; ammonia
has not been found, and the principal investigator for the instrument will
not talk about it at a conference to be held in Paris next week."
-
- For the love of Mike, the possibility of the Science
Editor for the BBC being the target of a hoax is itself a major news story!.
I find however the implication a little hard to swallow that Whitehouse
was simply the credulous victim of a run of the mill, off the street hoaxer.
If the ammonia report proves entirely false then it would seem to me very
probable that some high level someone or group of someones set out to sow
damaging disinformation.
|
