Aethelric t1_iu2rj8r wrote on October 28, 2022 at 3:01 AM

Reply to comment by malcontented in Ancient microbes may have survived below Mars' surface - CNN by GullyShotta

If you feel that the title is confidently stating that the microbes existed, the problem is yours and not the article's title.

malcontented t1_iu2skui wrote on October 28, 2022 at 3:10 AM

Ok so 3rd grade English review, “Ancient microbes” in the title without any qualifiers explicitly states there were ancient microbes.

Hope this helps with your reading comprehension

Aethelric t1_iu4owuj wrote on October 28, 2022 at 3:06 PM

I guess if you're bringing the preexisting knowledge of an illiterate child to the equation, which seems likely, that'd be true. Since anyone with even a smattering of knowledge about space knows that we haven't explicitly proved that life exists, the meaning here is clear.

malcontented t1_iu4qqgf wrote on October 28, 2022 at 3:19 PM

This was in CNN jerkoff. It’s a general audience and, at best, it was an oversight. At worst it was deliberately misleading

Aethelric t1_iu4xnc1 wrote on October 28, 2022 at 4:05 PM

Do you genuinely think that most people reading this go "ah, there must have been life on Mars that I've just never heard about"?

malcontented t1_iu6mc4q wrote on October 28, 2022 at 11:10 PM

If you ask the average CNN viewer if we’ve discovered any evidence of microbial life on Mars either currently alive or ancient I’m guessing the percent answering “yes” would be significantly different from zero.

Aethelric t1_iu6mub4 wrote on October 28, 2022 at 11:14 PM

Sure, but basing your approach to news as "what would the stupidest person draw from this" would make news far worse than clickbait.