Reporting not parroting - Earth-type planet..

Oh wow they've discovered a possible earth-type planet and the newscasters are getting all excited. Normally I wouldn't even bother to comment, it's 20+ light years away, start talking Europa and I'd be interested. However it's the news reports that are getting to me. The main ITV news did a delightful job of getting it all screwy. First they get excited about it then they tell us why - "Others [planets] found have been too gassy, like Jupiter; others too cold or too hot... this one is in the 'Goldilocks region' as astronomers put it" Heck even the BBC parrot that line.

Okay too gassy, too hot, or too cold for what? Life? Well life as we think of it perhaps, nothing stopping some other type of life form developing. So the statement needs a little modification -

"Others found have been too gassy, like Jupiter; others too cold or too hot for life as we know it"

Except it hasn't been that long since biologists were convinced that life couldn't exist in the Antarctic or next to undersea lava flumes 'Too cold, too hot" Yet not only was life found it was flourishing. So modifications need to be made to that statement again -

"Others found have been too gassy, like Jupiter; others too cold or too hot for life like us to have evolved"

Yet the Earth wasn't always like this, it used to be hotter, used to be colder too at times. So life could be still in the process of evolving on these planets. Modifying time again -

"Others found have been too gassy, like Jupiter; others too cold or too hot for us to live there"

But that's like saying we can't live in the Antarctic or visit the Moon; too cold and no atmosphere. But we've done both, we've transferred our own living conditions to these places. So once again -

"Others found have been too gassy, like Jupiter; others too cold or too hot for us to live there unaided"

And what does that tell us about the possibility of life developing on these 'unsuitable' planets? Absolutely nothing.

To paraphrase from the Science of the Discworld III. Four prominent astronomers gave a lecture on "Life out there". A biologist, Jack Cohen, was in the audience and asked "How would you feel if four biologists got up to give a lecture concerning the black hole at the centre of our galaxy?"