Earlier this hebdomad — and for a time period of virtually 24 hour — a CNN iReport falsely claim that a newly fall upon asteroid has a nearly 50 % chance of hitting the Earth in 2041 . The tale obtain more than 230,000 smash and 23,000 mass medium shares before it was finally taken down .
Ah , such are the peril of unvetted and unedited “ citizen journalism ” article . In this case , a user name Marcus575 put together a piece about this alleged asteroid :
Using their Near - Earth Object wide-cut - field Infrared Survey Explorer ( NEOWISE ) , the 10 - mile wide object was found approximately 51 million nautical mile from Earth . Scientists believe that during a close skirmish with Mars , the asteroid was nudged slightly off its common celestial orbit and may currently be on a high f number hit class with our fragile major planet . The asteroid is calculated to have a potentially lethal encounter with the Earth on March 35 , 2041 .
Note the fabricated date of March 35 ( most lecturer evidently did n’t ) . The news report continues :
Astronomers have place the odds of an impact at 1 in 2.04 , which is by far the most unprecedented risk ever faced to man , let alone from asteroids . Such an impact could potentially end refinement as we know it .
skillful , eh ?
Here ’s how the page looked for intimately 24 hours :
The storyprompted NASA to have to deny that the asteroid live . The article has since been taken down , replaced bythis Thomas Nelson Page :
Got ta loveSalon ’s takeon the fiasco :
Andrew Leonard writes :
iReport is an interesting experiment , except for the part where CNN hold that “ The tarradiddle here are not edit , fact - checked or screened before they station . ”
But never fear : “ CNN ’s producer will check out some of the most compelling , important and urgent iReports and , once they ’re cleared for CNN , make them a part of CNN ’s newsworthiness coverage . ”
So perchance the threat of the extinction of all human life 27 years from now was n’t impendent enough to be considered of import and urgent for CNN ’s producers . Or mayhap the relevant producers were enjoying themselves at a BBQ instead of supervise CNN - brand ego - publication . But here ’s the problem : In the 24 hours that the asteroid hoax was online , it was shared on Facebook at least 24,000 time , while racking up a quarter million views . And the average person that sees a story like this in their Facebook intelligence provender probably does n’t have a hint that CNN iReports is something that by definition is completely unreliable . The CNN brand is upfront and centre , and once upon a fourth dimension , that brand supposedly signify “ the most trusted name in news show . ”
As an aside , you’re able to always check current asteroid threatshere .
asteroidsScience
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