The Bad Astronomer has been reporting all weekend about the fireball which was sighted over Texas over the weekend. At first, many sources were mistakenly reporting that this was debris from the satellites that collided last week.

Despite the fact that agencies have now confirmed that it is NOT satellite debris, the media outlets are in a feeding frenzy over this. They're going as far as reporting that it possibly started a grass fire, and the what looks like a pipe laying in a field is part of what fell.

All the while using words like "mysterious" and "weird". This is nothing of the sort. While there are not very many daytime fireballs, the biggest deal about this one is that it fell over a populous area and was witnessed by a lot of people. The video above shows what looks like a piece of PVC pipe laying in a field as and example of possible "debris". Never taking into account that the object doesn't look like it could have possible traveled through the atmosphere at a few miles per second, not to mention the fact that the ground around it is utterly undisturbed. Something that big falling from an airplane would at least move some dirt around.

Once again, this shows the lack of a need for 24 hour news everywhere. They pick up these stories and rush to be the first to report on it, never verifying facts before opening their pie holes. Instead just spewing out their opinions until someone off camera checks the facts and lets the reporters make idiots out of themselves when they have to make corrections.

I'm starting to think it's a game that the news channels' research departments play for a good laugh at the expense of the talking heads.