Chris,
Before I retired, I worked for what was then NSW Agriculture. One of
my roles was to write press releases for the local papers about
various matters. After several years I gave up, as all too frequently,
clearly written press releases (we always had to use a Flesch
readability level of an 10-11 year in our releases), ended up so
mangled in the resulting newspaper article that I had trouble
believing that it was based on what I had written.
Cheers,
Carl Clifford
On 08/11/2010, at 2:34 PM, Chris Sanderson wrote:
Hi all,
I'm sure many of us have had our own experiences with the media getting
things wrong, but I guess I'd like to chip in a small defense of
journalists, who are often asked to cover stories about issues they know
nothing about and expected to be instant experts. It is also
important to
note that what a journo sends to their editor often only ends up
bearing a
passing resemblance to what is actually printed, so many of the mistakes
that creep into articles may actually occur in post-production through
the
hands of someone who didn't even create the source material.
Having said that there are few things more frustrating than being
misquoted
or having a small but important fact or detail mangled in an article
when
some basic fact-checking by the author could have prevented the error.
Regards,
Chris
On Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 1:20 PM, Jill Dening <> wrote:
Alan,
I've been interviewed on many occasions by the local Sunshine Coast
media
about local shorebird matters, and on every occasion but one they
have got
vital things wrong. And I always take the trouble to explain the
difficult
details. I'd say on that basis that there'd have to be something out
of
kilter with a very large number of stories in the general media. I
especially wonder about this when I am reading the business news,
because it
takes a bit of time and intellect to get your head around economic and
business news.
I used to wonder if my colleagues reading the stories quoting me
thought I
really said what is reported. Now I couldn't give a toss: nothing to
be done
about it.
Jill Dening
Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia
26° 51' 41"S 152° 56' 00"E
On 8/11/2010 12:27 PM, Alan McBride wrote:
Absolutely agree Keith. Knowing how they cock this sector up makes
you
wonder about the rest of the "news"!
A
On 08/11/2010, at 13:25 , Keith Brandwood wrote:
They are mostly stupid in my opinion Alan, but by far it is that
they are
ignorant of the facts and can not make the effort to find out.
Obviously
they don't realize that there are a whole population of
birdwatchers out
there reading their stories and thinking "what idiots" otherwise
they would
get it right.
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