The Chronicle editorial board led a house editorial yesterday as follows:
SOME media observers commented during Discovery’s 14-day flight on the morbid nature of much of the news coverage, as if viewers were hyped to rubberneck the fiery launch, the space walks and the tense re-entry to see if the crew made it back alive. After two and half years and $1.5 billion in repairs, the camera images of falling debris fueled a space spectacle akin to a NASA version of the reality show Survivor.
We’ll credit the Chronicle editorial board. Since the editorialists celebrated the “nearly flawless” launch of the shuttle the next day (despite evidence it was indeed flawed), they cannot be accused of negatively hyping the space program to generate interest.
Of course, they can’t be accused of getting the story right in their original editorial either.
