Leonardo's Secret Workshop

Today's blog is going to complain about the poor reporting on the news here in Australia. Tonight on the news, it had a brief account of Leonardo's Secret Workshop. For those unfamiliar with this discovery, it occurred and was reported over a week ago. Here is one article: Leonardo's Secret Workshop The news here in Australia reported that they found ONE room (when in fact it was five rooms, and they encompassed two stories). The news also reported that Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa there. Unfortunately, that was wrong as well. He may have started the Mona Lisa there, but he left this workshop in 1501. The Mona Lisa was completed in 1504. So making the statement that he painted it there is incorrect. Also, the news reported that the walls were covered with Leonardo's drawings and paintings. None of the art work has been proven to be Leonardo's, though it certainly contains elements of his work. It's believed though, that his assistants or other people under his tutorage might have done the paintings. Still the find is significant, but why did the news report it so inaccurately, and so late? I thought, a first they were going to show some pictures of what they found. Alas, I was sorely disappointed. They only reported what was found. One of the things which confused me though, was they did the opposite of sensationalising it. There were five rooms found. Why only say it was one? It didn't make sense to me. Then they went to the other extreme. They claimed it was where the Mona Lisa was painted. Something very easily disproved (though as I said, it may well have been started there). Also, saying it contained drawings and paintings done by Leonardo was a bit extreme. Not one picture has been confirmed to have been done by him yet. Like most Leonardo fans, I am hoping that they can prove who did each picture. Maybe even discover some long lost invention Leonardo designed but was lost. Maybe even something to rival Leonard of Quirm (Oh sorry, that's a Discworld reference!) Still, it is annoying that the news networks here got it so wrong. Well, onoe news network. I haven't seen it on any of the other channels. It's possible I missed it when they did have it on. My questions still remain: Why report it 9 days after written news? Why exaggerate one part? Why deflate another part? Why could they not get a simple story so correct? In one of my earlier blogs, I referred to the Tsunami. At the time they reported the death toll would be 36,000 when I wrote. Later of course, the toll grew and grew. I can understand them getting that wrong. After all, they were reporting what they knew at the time. As more information came in, the death toll kept growing. In the Leonardo article though, they seemed to get every piece of information wrong. The only thing they seemed to get right, was that it was a secret and it was Leonardo. The news called it a "Secret Room", but five rooms encompassing two stories, is not really "One Room". I prefer to call it Leonardo's Secret Workshop. With the news on Television getting a simple story so incorrect, how much do they get wrong on other stories? If the quality in editing the stories and the quality in reporting them are so bad, why should we watch the News on T.V. at all? I just hope they find some very significant things. It will open up what it was like to be in Leonardo's world at the time.