RE: Scientifically Illiterate Journalism - Russian Nuclear Submarine in Perspective

Yeah, the news is often willfully ignorant of science and technology. I don't think it would be that hard to consult someone to verify articles...but they don't. It regularly annoys me.

I've considered whether or not news organizations should be fined for things like this, because they are causing misinformation, panic, etc, depending on the story. Of course, if such a law were passed, it would have to be written very carefully, and my country's lawmakers aren't exactly known for passing intelligent legislation in recent times.

In regards to the specific story, I'm not a physicist or anything, just I instantly knew that there was something sketchy about it, because they didn't reference what the number was or anything. So the question becomes "800,000" times what? If it was 800,000 times background, that would be scary...but still needs reference to other numbers, like a normal X-ray, which is common, or how much you get during a flight. They clearly intentionally made a misleading article to get clicks.