A Galaxy of PR Woe

What I find interesting is that nearly a full year after the incident, Newsweek's Lynn Waddell STILL manages to perpetuate ERRONOUS information as FACT in the opening paragraph. "One astronaut drove across country to confront another over a spaceman they both admired" sounds titillating enough, except that Air Force captain Coleen Shipman (the "another" astronaut being alluded to in the story) is NOT an astronaut, just a junior-grade officer who happens to work in the military space arena, not NASA. With this type of public scrutiny and lack of attention to the details and facts, it's no wonder the media whips themselves up into a feeding frenzy that no amount of professional PR spin will ever really recover from, as people will continue to believe what they want to, despite the truth staring right back at them in the face.

What I find interesting is that nearly a full year after the incident, Newsweek's Lynn Waddell STILL manages to perpetuate ERRONOUS information as FACT in the opening paragraph. "One astronaut drove across country to confront another over a spaceman they both admired" sounds titillating enough, except that Air Force captain Coleen Shipman (the "another" astronaut being alluded to in the story) is NOT an astronaut, just a junior-grade officer who happens to work in the military space arena, not NASA. With this type of public scrutiny and lack of attention to the details and facts, it's no wonder the media whips themselves up into a feeding frenzy that no amount of professional PR spin will ever really recover from, as people will continue to believe what they want to, despite the truth staring right back at them in the face.

It's very difficult for me to see how NASA could have effectively smothered the Novak case with a PR barrage. The story in itself, an astronaut love-triangle, was attention-grabbing. The incredible mug shot of Novak would be all over the media, in spite of any barrage of photos of spacesuited protagonists. And the diaper story, whether true or not, once out in the public domain easily would dominate any positive spin NASA might have tried to insert. It was bound to be a difficult time for the space agency in the wake of Novak
no matter what they did. (I might add as well that I"m a little surprised that Mr. Grabowski thinks this is the first time NASA has had its reputation damaged since the glory days of Apollo.)

If the Monica Lewinsky scandal can occur in the oval office, what is the big deal with astronauts? Astronauts are just human beings. What had happened let it be. There is nothing virtuos in bringing up the scandal again. Let the law find its way to settle the matter.