Bear-ly News

I noticed that the most popular story in Yahoo! News today was the the following Reuters article with the attention grabbing headline: "Flying Bear Kills Two Canadians in Freak Accident"

Now I don't want to make light of a tragic car accident that leaves two people dead, but I expected a far more interesting story if it was going to lead with such a sensational headline. I mean essentially the car hit a bear while traveling at a high rate of speed. It's obviously an appallingly unlucky break for such a collision to lead to fatalities and the unusual manner in which the bear's body ended up entering and exiting the car could be considered freakish in its uniqueness but to categorize the bear as a "flying bear" is just irresponsible journalism.

Many animals involved in a drive by collision are technically "flying" for varying periods of time. If I hit a deer or a moose or a possum at the right angle, I can claim to have been accosted by a "flying" variant of that species. If I pulled a hit and run on a drifter "I Know What You Did Last Summer"-style, would that be considered the vehicular manslaughter of a special flying man? The next time I see a headline about a bear that slips the surly bonds of Earth it better have been piloting a Piper Cub or was accidentally shot out of a cannon in a terrible circus mishap, or was the first of a new and terrifying breed of winged ursine.

At least they didn't bring up "One Night at McCool's"

So Michael Douglas, being the socially conscious Hollywood celebrity that he is, decides to go to the United Nations to speak his mind about some issues that he finds of pressing global concern. Douglas feels strongly about the banning of nuclear testing (and after witnessing firsthand the nuclear horrors of "The China Syndrome", who wouldn't be?) and held a news conference to urge the United States and some other holdout countries to get in on the test ban treaty. As he was fielding questions, one reporter apparently got their facts slightly wrong.

Sure it's easy to laugh at the idea of how ill informed a reporter must be to address an actor by the character they played in a film over twenty years ago about a topic related to that character; however this was not the first time an academy award winning actor or actress was confused with their award winning film role.

Did you know?:

• Marlon Brando was once brought up on Racketeering and Corruption Charges by the New York State D.A.
• John Houseman was offered a tenured position teaching first year Contracts at Pepperdine University Law School.
  
• George C. Scott was briefly given full command of the Third United States Army.
  
• Faye Dunaway had to testify in front of the FCC regarding ethical programming practices of the major broadcasting networks.
• Sissy Spacek was nominated for the 1981 CMA Entertainer of the Year award.
• Jeremy Irons is still under suspicion for the attempted murder of millionaire heiress Sunny Von Bulow.
  
• Tommy Lee Jones was brought into assist in the nationwide manhunt for serial killer Andrew Cunanan.
• Cuba Gooding Jr. was offered a 2 year deal to play WR for the Denver Broncos in 2001 after losing Ed McCaffrey for the season.
• Angelina Jolie was interred at an undisclosed psychiatric institution for a three month period.
  
• Javier Bardem was arrested for the murder of dozens of individuals in the southern Texas area during the early 1980s.

If it's on the internet, it's a fact!