Clueless news reporting

http://www.kaaltv.com/news/more-than...-lea-/4483097/

It's good to get coverage, but wow. How can someone get this so wrong?

5Z

On Thursday, May 18, 2017 at 7:43:54 AM UTC+3, wrote:
http://www.kaaltv.com/news/more-than...-lea-/4483097/

It's good to get coverage, but wow. How can someone get this so wrong?

*Why* can't reporters run their piece past someone knowledgeable before publishing? Time, of course .. but gah.

Even something like "single place" to "single plane". It's perfectly clearly enunciated, and the reporter has it on on VIDEO.

Just remember it happens in absolutely every news report in every field. All the news you see about things you are not expert in is just as garbled.

Michael Crichton (Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park etc) coined the term "Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect" for this.

We should use it as a teachable moment for the journalist.

On Wednesday, May 17, 2017 at 11:43:54 PM UTC-5, wrote:
http://www.kaaltv.com/news/more-than...-lea-/4483097/

It's good to get coverage, but wow. How can someone get this so wrong?

5Z

I don't wish to add more tasks to contest staff. Perhaps we can work out a press release template to spoon feed the media accurate and interesting information in an easy to digest manner, filling in relevant details as needed.. Different templates for different soaring related situations an operation may find a journalist investigating or proactively sent to local outlets for local interest topics. If we make their job easier to craft an accurate interesting story we can get a better public image for ourselves and the sport.

On Wednesday, May 17, 2017 at 10:43:54 PM UTC-6, wrote:
http://www.kaaltv.com/news/more-than...-lea-/4483097/

It's good to get coverage, but wow. How can someone get this so wrong?

5Z



The description sounds more like an aerobatic contest than a XC soaring contest.

0

It's pretty bad reporting, but I don't think anything will ever top this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmclgO6w0C0

On Thursday, May 18, 2017 at 9:12:52 AM UTC-5, wrote:
It's pretty bad reporting, but I don't think anything will ever top this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmclgO6w0C0

Yeah, that has to be very near the top for all time bad reporting. "No time to fact check. We have to be the ones to break the story!"

On Thursday, May 18, 2017 at 9:12:52 AM UTC-5, wrote:
It's pretty bad reporting, but I don't think anything will ever top
this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmclgO6w0C0

Yeah, that has to be very near the top for all time bad reporting. "No
time to fact check. We have to be the ones to break the story!"


Chortle - that's the sort of thoughtless gaffe that makes me give thanks for
being alive to be able to savor such a once-in-a-lifetime event! As for fact
checking, according to *them* they *did*...and the NTSB confirmed it. Who are
we to not believe "official news media" *and* "our government?"

Maybe in my lifetime there'll even be a few Koreans saddled with "the Jeff
Foxworthy gene" who'll learn to appreciate the mordant humor. (Which, in my
piloting book, is more accurately interpreted as "crew-specific" than "overtly
racist"... Mea culpa!)

Bob W.

On Thursday, 18 May 2017 00:43:54 UTC-4, wrote:
http://www.kaaltv.com/news/more-than...-lea-/4483097/

It's good to get coverage, but wow. How can someone get this so wrong?

5Z

Framed on the wall of my study is the front page of the Minden paper (the den is in my Florida home so I can't reference the full name of the paper) with a report on a landout I made many years ago, headlined CANADIAN PILOT SURVIVES.

I framed it because, during the commotion of the visiting medivac helicopter, the volunteer fire department and the police, the reporters who accompanied photographers kept asking "So, what caused the crash?

They were not to be deterred from their quest for truth (alternative facts maybe?) by my reassurance that the aircraft was not broken and the pilot was not injured and details of what we call an 'outlanding'. "Yeah, but what caused the crash?"

I leant in closer, spoke softly, and acting reluctantly, allowed as how the research was now declassified, and that most often out landings are caused when there is "too little altitude when too close to the ground".

They quoted me perfectly!

Ever notice how it seems that whenever the news reports on a field in which you have extensive knowledge or an event you personally were involved with the story seems horribly incomplete or downright erroneous and misleading? Then we just go on to the next story and take it seriously. Funny, isn't it? :-)