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From: bzs@bucsd.UUCP (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: net.columbia,net.space
Subject: Re: unanswered questions
Message-ID: <150@bucsd.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 8-Feb-86 22:26:47 EST
Article-I.D.: bucsd.150
Posted: Sat Feb  8 22:26:47 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Feb-86 06:13:31 EST
Organization: Boston Univ Comp. Sci.
Lines: 43
Xref: watmath net.columbia:2234 net.space:5741


>From: mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
>I think that NASA is completely justified in restricting the information
>that is being released.
>...
>As far as I am concerned, NASA should clam a lid on everything until they
>have a solid report to make.
>...
>There is too much
>misinformation being injected into the net, and given that, there's the
>equal likelyhood of net speculation being back-converted into wild rumors.

Hopefully the parts edited out don't predjudice this, the full article is
obviously available to all...

I don't understand the obsession with 'misinformation' and 'speculation',
you never go on to explain just what harm is being caused by the current
situation.

I agree the press can act like idiots (eg. see the Larry Speakes press
conference 15 minutes after the disaster, unbelievably stupid questions)
but what real harm does it do? Especially in the long run as the facts
do come out?

I think lack of information is precisely what encourages speculation
and therefore conclude the opposite: NASA should be as frank and open
as possible as any information from them will hopefully be perceived
as authoritative, like the 'green cannister' info, the facts I believe
straightened people's paranoia out real fast.

I can see the annoyance with half-brained speculation, but isn't suppression
of conversation and berating anyone who is not completely correct far more
damaging and dangerous in the long run? I think so. Remember, you just don't
need all the facts to draw a rational conclusion, mainly just a rational
mind to know what you know and what you don't. I couldn't explain exactly
what is in one of those green cannisters, but I think I now believe that
no one is trying to hide something from me and that the stuff is dangerous,
and it's just an unfortunate thing, nothing more, nothing less.

I would prefer, by far, to separate the wheat from the chaff than to try
to interpret silence and censorship, any day.

	-Barry Shein, Boston University