The Fabrications of Neil deGrasse Tyson

I attended TAM when Neil deGrasse Tyson was the keynote speaker, and I found him incredibly engaging. I also enjoyed the Cosmos reboot. So I'd consider myself a fan, but lately I've come across some disturbing allegations that Tyson has been making up quotes that do not exist. I'm disappointed to say the least.



Examples:

Quote:

"Half the schools in the district are below average." -Newspaper headline

http://ift.tt/1ukpYvp



It should be a red flag already that we don't know which newspaper, or the date. (Not to mention that there is a difference between the mean and the median... but I digress.) My google fu powers are insufficient to find the actual headline. Where did Tyson find it?

Quote:

A congressman once said "I've changed my view 360 degrees." At least Olympic half-pipe snowboarders know their geometry.

http://ift.tt/1ukpW6R



No kidding. Which congressman? When?

Quote:

"After the 9/11 attacks, when President George W. Bush, in a speech aimed at distinguishing the U.S. from the Muslim fundamentalists, said, 'Our God is the God who named the stars.' The problem is two-thirds of all the stars that have names, have Arabic names. I don't think he knew this. This would confound the point that he was making."

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I AGREE

Again, I can't find the quote. Here's the closest I can find from George W. Bush.

Quote:

In the skies today we saw destruction and tragedy. Yet farther than we can see, there is comfort and hope. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, "Lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one and calls them each by name. Because of His great power, and mighty strength, not one of them is missing." The same Creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today. The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth; yet we can pray that all are safely home.

If this is indeed what Tyson was referring to, then there are at least three glaring problems:



1. Bush didn't utter the phrase as cited by Tyson.

2. The tragedy the speech was from was the 2003 Columbia disaster, not 9/11.

3. Bush did not make this speech to distinguish ourselves from Muslim fundamentalists.



So, wrong quote, wrong date, wrong context, wrong implication.



I'm now wondering if any citations or anecdotes of Tyson's are truthful.

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