Jellyfish and Spin

Marathon swimmer Diana Nyad attempted to swim from Florida to Cuba but was turned back by jellyfish. From our taxpayer-subsidized Public Broadcasting Service:

Nyad's Cuba-Florida Swim Thwarted by Jellyfish
Diana Nyad had left no corner untucked in preparations for her fourth attempt to swim across the Florida Strait. She assembled a world-class team for the expedition, including a jellyfish expert, shark divers, a navigator and meteorologists, all of whom assisted the 62-year-old long-distance swimmer train for the 103-mile swim.

But Nyad's attempt ended when her team pulled her from the water 41 hours into the endeavor. Stung repeatedly by jellyfish, trailed by sharks and buffeted by storm-tossed waves, the swim ended near midnight on Tuesday after her team decided that the physical risks had become too great.

She voiced considerable disappointment at having the effort end without realizing her lifelong dream as she talked with NewsHour correspondent Margaret Warner, shortly after arriving in Key West, Fla.

A bit more:

The jellyfish have become her main nemesis on each of the recent attempts. According to Nyad, their presence reflects the changing nature of the oceans. Nyad described possible factors for the change as global warming, oil spills and ballast dumping by tankers at sea.

I love Anthony Watts' website: Watts Up With That. He has a link called Tips and Notes that solicits comments from readers with... well... tips and notes to Anthony and his editors about items of potential interest. Reader Daniel H had the following note: Please Note: the Tips and Notes page is cleaned every few weeks -- the above link will only be good for another week or two. I am quoting Daniel's entire note

Daniel H says:
August 28, 2012 at 7:45 pm

According to PBS, marathon swimmer Diana Nyad�s most recent failure to swim unaided from Cuba to Florida was caused by �global warming�. As PBS dutifully reports:

The jellyfish have become her main nemesis on each of the recent attempts. According to Nyad, their presence reflects the changing nature of the oceans. Nyad described possible factors for the change as global warming, oil spills and ballast dumping by tankers at sea.

But that wasn�t enough for PBS. A few days later they released an even more alarmist story on the same topic. This time we are told by the �experts� that in addition to global warming, ocean acidification is also to blame for the recent proliferation of jellyfish:

Before and during the swim, Nyad�s team worked closely with Angel Anne Yanagihara, jellyfish expert and assistant research professor at the University of Hawaii�s Pacific Biosciences Research Center� In the 34 years since Nyad first swam from Cuba to Key West in 1978, the ocean has changed, she said. �The story of how jellyfish have proliferated in the world�s oceans today � it�s going to be the biggest story of the oceans,� she told the NewsHour on Tuesday. �Without a doubt, the ocean�s warmer now,� Finnerty said. �The ocean�s more acidic than it was then. Depending on where you were, there could be more contaminants in the ocean and more algal blooms.�

The only problem with these claims is that anyone can research them in the Google News Archives to see just how much �the ocean has changed� in �the 34 years since Nyad first swam from Cuba to Key West in 1978″. For example, we find this AP news story from August 8, 1978:

Her mouth blistered and tongue swollen from poisonous jellyfish stings, Diana Nyad refused to abandon her 103-mile swim from Cuba and today carved a steady course across the Florida Strait��She�s aware of the medical problem,� said operations manager Ken Gundersen as he monitored ship-to-shore radio reports in Key West. �She wants to keep going. They�re going to let her.� Gundersen admitted he was concerned the stings might make Ms. Nyad�s throat swell shut. He said that would end the swim. He was trying to find a doctor to go to the swimmer by helicopter early today and check her condition.

Or how about this AP news story from August 21, 1979:

Her left eye was swollen shut from salt water and a coating of latex � donned to protect her from Portuguese men-of-war stings � hung from her in shreds. Jellyfish stings ended her first Bahamas-to-Florida swim two weeks ago after 12 hours. About dawn yesterday, divers cleared jellyfish from her path, using �bang� sticks designed to ward off sharks. She was stung Sunday by a small jellyfish and cried out: �Why, why, why?�

So apparently the �story of how jellyfish have proliferated in the world�s oceans today� is in fact a non-story. The jellyfish have always been a problem for Ms. Nyad. In fact, her past encounters with jellyfish were just as bad, if not worse, than her most recent encounter with them. Once again, PBS�s shoddy reporting and highly slanted news coverage does a huge disservice to American taxpayers.

Another sterling example of our tax dollars at work. Let us cut PBS' funding by 30% for the next five years and see what happens. I know for sure that their reaction would be to drop two or three really popular shows citing funding problems. Generate a public outcry all the while they are wasting significant taxpayer dollars on crap like this. Even better -- cut funding by 30% and audit their asses. Gravy? NPR and all of the other Governmental TLAs (three letter acronyms) EPA and DHS to start...