Partial Solar Eclipse & Stupidity of the Iraqi Media

Although the Solar Eclipse of Friday 1 August 2008 was partial over Iraq and didn't exceed 15%, but i so much enjoyed it; and i also enjoyed the media coverage, especially from Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera.

The good thing that was in those two channels, as well as a couple of other channels was that they gave accurate information as to where it was going to affect, with what percentage, and for how long.

But the Iraqi TV stations had a different story of sorts. Just so you know, Iraqi channels are close to 20, give or take. Only a quarter or so of those channels carried Live coverage of the event. The best coverage was on Al-Forat & Al-Sumeria, where they carried Live images from Baghdad skies.

Al-Iraqiya followed, and they had coverage from Baghdad as well as Basra in the South, which was the good side. The bad side was that the news anchor who was "running the show" so to speak was extremely stupid. She didn't know what causes the Eclipse; she didn't know that adjacent countries see it on relatively close scales; she didn't know that it is a normal natural phenomenon; she didn't know how long it would last; she thought that it was scary; and last but not least, she didn't notice that this Eclipse didn't affect the illumination on the ground and in the sky.

She was not the only one who made this terribly ignorant mistake. A reporter on al-Iraqiya later that day mentioned on his report that all the Middle East countries witnessed a Partial Solar Eclipse, except Jordan! Now i have no idea how that would've happened!! The Total Eclipse was on Russia and China alright, but Jordan?! In fact, Jordan had a smaller Eclipse than Iraq, that is if it was ever seen in Jordan in the first place!

So, this calls for teaching people (and especially the media people, and even more especially Al-Iraqiya) about scientific issues, hopefully before the next Partial Solar Eclipse that Iraq will have on 15 January 2010. Media is not all about Imams and shining the Government's image, otherwise it would make no difference from Saddam's media!