Re: Horner on NBC Nightly News

["Steve Brusatte" <dinoland@lycos.com>]

>On Wed, 18 Jul 2001 Dinogeorge@aol.com wrote:
>
>> You might consider the possibility that Tyrannosaurus occupied different
>> niches at different times in its life. Perhaps it was a predator while young
>> and relatively small, then became a scavenger when older and huge.

Yeah, this is a good point, and a very valid possibility.  I would be surprised 
if scavenging was something that Tyrannosaurus did not do on a decently regular 
basis.  However, it is not necessarily Horner with whom I am mad, but rather 
the media as a whole.  For instance, in yesterday's Chicago Sun Times (in a JP 
III review), a writer (a science writer, by the way) referred to pterosaurs as 
"large predatory birds."

I tend not to be critical of instances such as these, but I have plenty of 
experience with the media.  I get paid a pretty good amount of money to write 
for my local newspaper during the summer, and that includes everything from 
sports to front page news.  When there is something that I am unsure of (such 
as what a pterosaur is), I take the time to check.  I work for a paper with a 
circulation of only 20,000 or so.  You would think the writers for the Sun 
Times, which probably has a circulation of over a million, to be a lot more 
careful.  Ditto for NBC Nightly News...

Steve

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