I think Sato probably hasn't been best served by journalists. I find it very difficult to make out what he actually said, even after Googling up a number of versions of the story and reading the paper version in New Scientist last night. So far I haven't been able to find an on-line transcript of his original presentation.
The "couldn't fly" and "couldn't soar" headline recurs on-line, but that doesn't seem to accurately reflect the reported content. Sato apparently telemetered the flapping frequency of various free-living albatrosses, and has come up with some sort of rule of thumb involving wing length, flap frequency and weight. He has made some sort of extrapolation to pterosaurs, and has commented on their potential ability to flap in order to take off and stay aloft in still conditions, comparing it unfavourably to albatrosses.
Was this just a throw-away comment at the end of a presention about albatross telemetry? Or was it a careful presentation centred on pterosaurs, taking into account differences in anatomy, and discussing potential differences in physiology? I find it impossible to say, from the reports I've read. It also seems quite outlandish for the comics to run with headlines about "couldn't fly" or "couldn't soar", when all the guy seems to have said is that pterosaurs wouldn't perform at all well in flapping flight. That's a statement about limited flight options, not about an inability to fly or to soar.

So I suspect the poor fella is pretty hacked off with his news coverage, at present.

Grant Hutchison