You’ve heard of people who are Unread or Well-read. I believe there is a category of people who are Overread, and I am among them.

If you’re Overread, you are constantly convinced you know more than most journalists, both radio and print, as well as most radio and TV hosts. You aren’t happy about this. Really it would be better if the journalists would present verifiable information, which could be helpful for the portions of their audience who are Lightly Read, or rely on industry-curated social media for information, or are headline grazers.

I used to talk back during these stories, but I’m trying to reserve my crazy lady episodes for critical situations like keeping my kids from poisoning themselves with bad nutritional choices, or getting my husband to do stuff because he feels sorry for me. If you’re crazy all the time, the world and the people in it spin away. So now I just switch to the classical station or find something expert-based to read.

The latter sets me up for a positive feedback loop of overreading.

As everyone with a field of expertise knows, when you read about your own field in the popular press or hear a radio program about it, you will encounter errors. That’s a little sad, because people who are interested are getting some misinformation, but everyone can’t be an expert at everything, and often these errors aren’t egregious. Journalists, hard-working and necessary as they are, usually report on something outside their areas of expertise.

Recently though, I feel this way about almost every story, and often the errors are egregious. Today I heard a radio host arguing with his expert guest about the likelihood of life on other planets, and the expert, who was trying to encourage listeners to take ecological threats seriously, told him that life on other planets is “at least rare.” I’ve read a lot about this. It’s not a matter of odds; there are an almost unimaginable number of stars, but how many have planets? How many of those planets are gas giants vs. rocky? How many are outside the path of gamma ray sources? Our relatively remote galaxy has helped in this last factor, since gamma rays effectively sterilize a planet.

Even if there are lots of microbially-rich planets, that doesn’t mean Star Trek is likely to remind us of a documentary soon. Check out the Rare Earth hypothesis.

Why do I know all this stuff? You know why.

During this time of no concerts or dances or volunteer work, I read even more, and I am exposed to more sloppy journalism in the guise of Covid reporting, which seems particularly influenced by the attitude of the journalist presenting it. The ones who are terrified of getting Covid report it differently from the ones who are dismissive of the whole idea, who report it differently from the ones who feel responsible for saving the world. Then there are ones who spin everything positively–Vaccine ready, plenty for all!–and negatively–We’ll all die soon!

I think I know better, but I get no satisfaction from this. Just a headache.