Posted by: John Flick

I'll be honest. There are things done in the media that make me cringe. Even though I'm a journalist, I don't always agree with some of the "journalism" on TV or in the papers. Coverage of the NASA LOVE TRIANGLE comes to mind.
Astronaut Lisa Nowak has been charged with attempted murder after she drove 900 miles to Orlando to confront the woman she felt was her rival for the affections of fellow astronaut, William Oefelein.
According to police reports, Nowak was wearing a wig and had a bag full of weapons when she tracked down Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman in a parking lot and attacked her with pepper spray. With that, Nowak has gone from space hero to criminal suspect.
It's certainly a compelling story and it has TV Movie Of The Week written all over it... and so far the networks are setting up the perfect script with headlines like:

"Astro-nut"
"Astro-naughty"
"Lust In Space"
"The Wrong Stuff" (a play on Tom Wolfe's astronaut book and the movie, "The Right Stuff.")

It's those cutesy wordings that bring on that cringe reaction I mentioned. I'm all for creativity, but in this case, calling someone an "Astro-nut" turns a serious, albeit strange, situation into a joke.
Nowak obviously has major issues that need to be addressed. She drove hundreds of miles with diapers in her car so she could make better time, for goodness sake! The story is a joke maker's dream... and fine if Letterman, Leno or The Daily Show want to handle that, but I don't think "Astro-naughty" has a place on the nightly news.
Every nuance of Nowak's life will now be scrutinized (perhaps she deserves it), but so will the other two people unwittingly drawn into this tangled triangle. I'm sure they wish they could get away from it all... perhaps, a trip to space is the getaway they need.