Science Reporting on the News

[kenglish]

KSL has in story on their website today, about measuring subsonic noise in the stratosphere, using microphones on balloons:

www.ksl.com/article/50643052/mysterious-unidentified-sounds-captured-in-recordings-of-the-stratosphere

That got me thinking about how interesting science is, and could be, if properly presented to the average person or students. I wondered whatever happened to people like Ed Yeates, so I Googled a bit, and found this:

wasatchweatherweenies.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-demise-of-science-reporting-in-utah.html?m=1

Would it be worth having a "Science Specialist" on TV again?

[CAwasinNJ]

And that blog was posted 9 years ago. It's gotten even worse since. I have to wonder whether the audience for that kind of reporting even bothers with local news anymore. For those that care, PBS and some cable networks exist. Is there enough mass interest to sustain geeky topics on a mainstream newscast?

Speaking a little more generally, the other day I was marveling at how a certain local station that I consider overly sensationalistic was bragging that they're #1 in a laundry list of dayparts and what that says about the viewership in Utah. It's not good. It's sad to me that the public really seems to eat this stuff up, but I'm not sure what to do about it.