(no subject)

News outlets last week: Stephen Hawking says there must be extraterrestrial life!!

Me: That's news?!

Seriously, the guy's been a household name for a long time now. Has it never occurred to any reporter to ask his opinion on the matter? Did he abstain from answering? Did he change from a previous position? If either, why didn't they say so?

If Hawking had come up with an innovative perspective, I could see it making headlines. Instead, he firmly voiced a popular answer to a question whose affirmative has yet to be proven, and that's where the burden of proof lies. As I see it, the outlets that gave the most attention to his statement are aiming for emotions: Believers in space aliens will feel largely vindicated, and the rest might engage them in discussion.

This isn't scientific progress. This is gossip.