Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 16:02:46 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: SF fandom- reality check
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

At 12:34 PM 4/20/05 -0700, N Lynch wrote:
>--- Drew Bittner <drewbitt at yahoo.com> wrote:

>FANDOM; it's a perception the media has of us, which
>is totally different.  That news organizations lump
>all SF type fandoms together is also not the fault of
>media FANDOM.  I blame *SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE*, as that
>was the first time media fandom was portrayed on TV

Fandom of all sorts has been portrayed on TV many times.  Sometimes in the
news, and sometimes elsewhere, such as TV shows and movies.  I suspect some
of that happened before SNL, though that was certainly an extreme case (and
showed just how ungrateful Shatner can be to those who made him a star
despite an almost complete lack of talent).

It's really amazing that anyone still believes anything they see on TV
news, or hear on radio or read in the paper without checking it out for
themsevles first.  Reporters are generally pretty ignorant people, and they
aren't given enough time to educate themselves on the things they report on
in most cases, even if they were interested in doing so.  The result is
usually stories full of errors and omissions.

There hasn't been a situation reported on yet where I knew anything about
the subject already where they got it right, and sometimes they've been
*wildly* wrong.  Any story on gun control is likely to be mostly wrong
(don't get me started...), and airplane crashes are famous for reporting
errors (such as turning "the aircraft stalled and fell to the ground" into
a report of an engine failure...).  A breakin on NASA's SPAN network in the
late 80s was reported as a breakin on a "top secret NASA computer network"
for instance.  SPAN (Space Physics Analysis Network) was anything but "top
secret"...we had at least two nodes behind the Iron Curtain for instance
(Poland and Czechoslovakia), and this was *before* the Soviet Union became
the UFFR (Union of Fewer and Fewer Republics).  Anyone who's ever played
"telephone" should know to take all reports with a grain of salt
anyway...but most don't and just accept what reporters say as the absolute
truth.

You can't even check one against another anymore in many cases as they just
report what each other said, interview each other about their opinions, and
copy stories from wire services for the most part.  Ever notice that you
can flip channels at news time and find the same stories being done on all
the major networks?  Usually in the same order and with approximately the
same durations?  Things that make you go Hmmmmmmm....

>SF fans are also supposed to be UFO fanatics as well.
>I've also been asked how I can believe in flying
>saucers.

I've seen them myself.  Spilled coffee often results in such things... ;-)

-- Mike B.
--
Keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out.