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BBC Bad Reporting

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Badger

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On the BBC news homepage you see a picture of a train crash with:

"Train jackknifed on faulty track
A train jackknifed at 92mph less than two seconds after travelling over degraded points in Cumbria, an inquest hears."

When you open it up, you find the title of the article is actually "Grayrigg crash: Black box shows how train jackknifed" and the article goes on to explain about Grayrigg in 2007.

Come on, that's really bad reporting. No excuse for not using the title of the article on the homepage. The way they put it it looks like a new crash and serves only to make people more anxious about rail travel!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/england/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-15468600
 
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MidnightFlyer

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I personally don't read it that way, the worst thing about that article is that the derailment happened at Lambrigg, not Grayrigg!
 

ralphchadkirk

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"Train jackknifed on faulty track
A train jackknifed at 92mph less than two seconds after travelling over degraded points in Cumbria, an inquest hears."

Well that makes it pretty obvious it's not a new crash. As well as the fact that you have to scroll 2/3rds down the page to see it!
 

WatcherZero

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I have to agree, nothing wrong with the BBC, their covering the inquest.
 

tbtc

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I hate the way that old crashes get dragged into the news when the inquiry is on.

Its like when someone is murdered - there's the press attention when they die, the press attention when the "killer" is found, then the trial gets covered in gory detail (like the Landscape Architect from Bristol)... so that many people think crime is significantly worse than it is, because we read about the same crime two or three times.

Same with train crashes - there's not been many in recent years (thankfully), and trains are a much safer method of transport than cars, but the amount of press given into inquests like this scare people.

No wonder "fear of crime" is such a big issue

/rant
 

ralphchadkirk

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So you're saying the news shouldn't be reported if it upsets people?


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richw

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So you're saying the news shouldn't be reported if it upsets people?


Sent from my iPhone 4 using Tapatalk

I think it should be more sensitive towards victims and their families, some of the time!

Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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"Train jackknifed on faulty track
A train jackknifed at 92mph less than two seconds after travelling over degraded points in Cumbria, an inquest hears."

The last three words in the quote above make it clear that the matter was being discussed at an inquest and nothing whatsoever to do with a news flash concerning a newly-happened event.
 

NSEFAN

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tbtc said:
I hate the way that old crashes get dragged into the news when the inquiry is on.

Its like when someone is murdered - there's the press attention when they die, the press attention when the "killer" is found, then the trial gets covered in gory detail (like the Landscape Architect from Bristol)... so that many people think crime is significantly worse than it is, because we read about the same crime two or three times.

Same with train crashes - there's not been many in recent years (thankfully), and trains are a much safer method of transport than cars, but the amount of press given into inquests like this scare people.

No wonder "fear of crime" is such a big issue

/rant

The media seems to have a thing for "over doing it", especially on train/plane crashes. Such events don't occur very often, so the novelty draws the attention of the public. If they were to report car crashes with the same fanfare we'd never hear about anything else.
 

David Dunning

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The media seems to have a thing for "over doing it", especially on train/plane crashes. Such events don't occur very often, so the novelty draws the attention of the public. If they were to report car crashes with the same fanfare we'd never hear about anything else.


There;s a big difference in national v regional coverage of accidents on the roads. There is a car crash story on local media websites virtually everyday
so the coverage is just as detailed as rail crashes .
Fatal road accidents often make national papers athough not front page , but coach crashes and multi vehicle accidents will be there in just the same way as a train crash .
 

Badger

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I just think that, given the low amount of these crashes, they focus on the same ones too much.

Like with murder cases, all the public needs to know is:

1. A report when the event has occurred
2. A report when the event has been stopped from happening again

My point with this thread was their wording.

As a headline, four years after an event, "Train jacknifed on faulty track" is pretty weird. The news isn't that the train jacknifed in this instance; the news is that an enquiry has heard why it might have happened.
 

WatcherZero

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Theres actually thousands of murders a year, but only a handful ever make the news.
 

Oliver

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TV News focuses on stories with "interesting" video footage, because the line between real news and entertainment is very blurred. For this reason train and plane crashes, earthquakes, extreme weather, etc, will always get coverage, whereas crimes such a fraud don't, because there's not much to see.
 

Squaddie

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As a headline, four years after an event, "Train jacknifed on faulty track" is pretty weird.
I would say that the wording is absolutely appropriate.

"Train jackknifed" is past tense, making it clear that this is something that happened in the past (even without the "an inquest hears").

If this were recent news the headline would undoubtedly use the present tense ("Train jackknifes") and the story would say "A train has jackknifed".

In this instance there appears to be nothing wrong with the way in which the story is being reported.
 

hairyhandedfool

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....Come on, that's really bad reporting. No excuse for not using the title of the article on the homepage. The way they put it it looks like a new crash and serves only to make people more anxious about rail travel!....

I don't think it is wrong in the factual sense, but I think it is like that for 'maximum effect'. People tend to get attracted by dramatic news, so if it started "Grayrigg: black box" or "An Inquest has heard...." or similar, fewer people might read it.

I would say that the wording is absolutely appropriate.

"Train jackknifed" is past tense, making it clear that this is something that happened in the past (even without the "an inquest hears").

If this were recent news the headline would undoubtedly use the present tense ("Train jackknifes") and the story would say "A train has jackknifed".

In this instance there appears to be nothing wrong with the way in which the story is being reported.

The majority of news happens in the past;):lol:
 

DaveNewcastle

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I wonder if any of those criticising the reporting of the Inquest on this thread (as if it was a new story) are also the people who criticise the reports of incidents the first time round, claiming 'they should wait until the proper Report has been published' ?
 

snail

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I personally don't read it that way, the worst thing about that article is that the derailment happened at Lambrigg, not Grayrigg!
Nothing wrong with that. The nearest village is Grayrigg but the section where the train derailed is crossing Lambrigg Fell, so the points are identified as Lambrigg.
 

ralphchadkirk

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I wonder if any of those criticising the reporting of the Inquest on this thread (as if it was a new story) are also the people who criticise the reports of incidents the first time round, claiming 'they should wait until the proper Report has been published' ?

There's no problem with reporting it, it's when people start speculating that people ask that they should wait until the report is published.
 

jopsuk

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Actually there were only 619 murders last year.

And here we have one of the big problems with the way this country is run, and with the tabloid media- the actual rate of crime being much, much lower thn the perceived rate of crime.
 

tbtc

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And here we have one of the big problems with the way this country is run, and with the tabloid media- the actual rate of crime being much, much lower thn the perceived rate of crime.

Agreed.

I wonder, if you asked 100 people (Family Fortunes style...) how many train passengers had died in crashes in the last five years (say), what answer you'd get? Probably significantly higher than the truth...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
So you're saying the news shouldn't be reported if it upsets people?

No, I'm saying that:

1. the press shouldn't glorify old disasters to fill "slow news days"
2. the press should use some perspective in its reporting (making clear that something that happened a few years ago happened a few years ago)
3. constantly re-reporting the same stories gives a wrong impression (but does sell papers)
 

Nym

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Agreed.

I wonder, if you asked 100 people (Family Fortunes style...) how many train passengers had died in crashes in the last five years (say), what answer you'd get? Probably significantly higher than the truth...
In the last 5 years, so thats only actually
Greyrigg / Lambrigg 1 PAX
E* Jumper 1 PAX

So 2.

If you include passengers in cars on level crossings and pedestrians on foot crossings that jumps up to about 15...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Oh, and the merseyrail one under recently, but still not actually a passenger in an incident caused by the railway.
 

Caertroia

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Theres actually thousands of murders a year, but only a handful ever make the news.

Easy to exaggerate, isn't it?

Latest annual figures for England & Wales: 619
Latest annual figure for Scotland: 79
Total: 698

A bit less than "thousands"
 

tbtc

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In the last 5 years, so thats only actually
Greyrigg / Lambrigg 1 PAX
E* Jumper 1 PAX

So 2.

If you include passengers in cars on level crossings and pedestrians on foot crossings that jumps up to about 15...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Oh, and the merseyrail one under recently, but still not actually a passenger in an incident caused by the railway.

But, because of the way that accidents get reported and rereported (e.g. when there's an Inquest) I bet a large number of people would guess in double figures, maybe even hundreds.

Same with the murder rate "exaggeration".

I guarantee that the next rail crash will have headlines about "ANOTHER Rail Crash" somewhere along the line.
 

ReverendFozz

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oglord:845606 said:
More bad reporting - it says the accident happened in "Cumbria" whereas in actual fact it clearly happened in Westmorland.

I didnt think Westmorland had not been there since 1974 when Cumbria was formed
 
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jopsuk

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The last major passenger train crash, with vehicles fully leaving the line, was the grayrigg crash. In the interim we've "only" had relatively low speed level crossing crashes. it is really quite stunning, and a testament to the work after Hatfield, Potters Bar and Grayrigg having a good, positive effects.
 
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