when news reporters get it wrong

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i don't mean politically, i mean just plain facts: it *always* makes my jaw drop (which is silly obv)

this occurred to me when i heard a pundit commenting on the sniper being caught say something abt "the zodiac killer... when they caught him" >>> the first thing i did when i got back to the net was look up to see if he had been caught!! ie i still basically assume that news reporters will get facts right!!!

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 28 October 2002 21:06 (twenty-three years ago)

Broadsheet science writers seem to be incapable of writing about anything I could claim to know a little about without including at least one inaccuracy or half truth in the piece. I should be inured to this by now, but it still pisses me off.

― RickyT (RickyT), Monday, 28 October 2002 21:21 (twenty-three years ago)

I may have to dig out Thurber's wonderful The Years With Ross - lots of good stuff about thorough fact checking on the New Yorker there.

By the way, fantastic to see you back, Mark! Things seem just a bit empty without you around, not unlike Eminem.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 28 October 2002 22:51 (twenty-three years ago)

This comparison is a touch flawed. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 29 October 2002 00:01 (twenty-three years ago)

i liked it

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 29 October 2002 00:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Did the pundit mean The Zodiac SF or The Zodiac NY? The former's whereabouts are unknown while the latter is indeed rotting in jail as we speak.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 29 October 2002 00:22 (twenty-three years ago)

mark, i missed you-email me, telling me its all ok

― anthony easton (anthony), Tuesday, 29 October 2002 00:31 (twenty-three years ago)

michael, it didn't occur to me that he might have meant the nyc one, which is also silly of me i suppose

anthony i'll email tomorrow: things are OK though

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 29 October 2002 00:39 (twenty-three years ago)

This one is close to my heart. My boyf was all over the newspapers, TV etc etc last week (for the second time this month) and it still astounds me how completely wrong the news coverage was. I could give various glaring examples of complete lies, not based on anything as far as we can figure out, but I don't wanna give myself away. Maybe I'm a media snob but I was expecting the tabloids to go to town and not really care about factual content but in the broadsheets and on the evening news I would've expected better.

― Plinky (Plinky), Tuesday, 29 October 2002 09:52 (twenty-three years ago)

This is getting too tantalising, Plinky. You assure us it wasn't a violent or sexual crime. Is is Tony Blackburn?

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 29 October 2002 10:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Tony Hadley?

― Sarah (starry), Tuesday, 29 October 2002 10:37 (twenty-three years ago)

What was he in the papers for?

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 29 October 2002 10:46 (twenty-three years ago)

in local glasgow papers?

[it is v. v. intriguing]

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 29 October 2002 10:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Plinky said before it was national tabloids.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 29 October 2002 10:53 (twenty-three years ago)

This annoyed me on Sunday when Radio 4(!) explained that putting the clocks back was to stop children walking to school in the dark. The upshot being that they walk home in the dark.

WHat is never noticed about the clock shift is that GMT - where we are now - was the normal state until BST was brought in. WHich has much more bearing on how the clock was decided on a long, long time ago.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 29 October 2002 10:53 (twenty-three years ago)

The upshot being that they walk home in the dark.

Well yeah - but many kids will finish at 3.30-4. So this it only a problem when the days become really short.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 29 October 2002 11:06 (twenty-three years ago)

It was all over the Scottish news and newspapers. It wasn't a violent or sexual crime but it is something that people feel very very strongly about. My experience in the past few weeks is that people hear the crime and then switch off. I cannot defend what he did so I tend not to tell, it upsets me when people think of him purely as what he did. It was a bad thing, but he is more sorry than you could ever know, he hates himself, has tried suicide twice and he's self harming. It was before I met him but people are already assuming that we must both be like that. He's been made an example of and he deserves to be punished but basically he's been tried and convicted by the media. Once it all dies down I'll probably tell but at the moment I am very paranoid, being stalked by the paparazzi will do that to ya!

― Plinky (Plinky), Tuesday, 29 October 2002 11:56 (twenty-three years ago)

is it david shayler?
-- RJG ([email protected]), Today 12:07 PM. (RJG)

is it ricky gervaise?
-- mark s ([email protected]), Today 12:13 PM. (mark s)

is it a tennis player?
-- jel -- ([email protected]), Today 12:18 PM. (jel)

None of the above!

― Plinky (Plinky), Tuesday, 29 October 2002 12:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Is it Mo Johnstone? He did something pretty unforgiveable, didn't he? And he's ginger. Or it could be some other Scottish footballer - they're always getting into trouble. My sister once slept with Frank McAvennie. That's my claim to fame.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Tuesday, 29 October 2002 12:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Knock it off, even if you guess I'm hardly gonna say "yes, that's him, you've found me out..."!!

― Plinky (Plinky), Tuesday, 29 October 2002 12:38 (twenty-three years ago)

I used to know somebody who slept with Carlton Palmer (because he was famous)

― Madchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 29 October 2002 12:42 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm interested in the orig. question: do you see it more often in TV news than in newspaper news?

― geeta (geeta), Tuesday, 29 October 2002 16:26 (twenty-three years ago)

four years pass...

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/7/emw256886.htm

Worldwide Law Enforcement and the Long Island University Homeland Security Institute announce their 5-day Crime Scene and Homicide Investigation Seminar to be held October 17th through the 21st, 2005 at the Clarion Hotel and Convention Center, Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Keynote presentation by one of the men who led the Crime Scene and Recovery efforts related to the September 11th World Trade Center attack.

Also featuring a case study of the infamous "Zodiac Serial Killer" by the supervisor credited with the apprehension of The Zodiac Killer.

― anticon jemima (ooo), Thursday, 23 November 2006 21:23 (nineteen years ago)

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