Ever feel that "news" doesn't give enough information?

Myranda

This afternoon I was looking at the news and saw this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-36236324

Car crash holds up busy road... person involved calls for speed cams. Not really news, but a "celeb" (well a wealthy person who was sufficiently wealthy to be asked onto I'm a celeb pay me to be in the jungle, but not wealthy enough to decline).

But the photo of the damage to her car got me wondering.

A little googling and comparing the photos in the article narrowed the crash site down to one of two junctions

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Castle+Goring/@50.8422002,-0.4324807,228a,20y,191.22h,45t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x4875a335d95521cb:0xcfb499bf62a72b1!8m2!3d50.839936!4d-0.435329!6m1!1e1

Now... because the google car drove into rather than out of both junctions it's on the wrong side to get a perfect idea... but visability on one of those roads stretches for what appears to be a half mile. The other looks to have maybe 200 yards visibility (there's a van in the way, but at the left turn 200 yrds sign there is an angle to the lines of the junction - a drivers head would be higher than this).

The damage to the car is a VERY clear side impact... on the right side of the vehicle with a slight angle to the impact damage - as though the driver pulled out onto a busy dual carriageway without looking, perhaps because they were very close to home and had crossed this section of dual carriageway hundreds of time and were somewhat complacent.

Obviously the BBC don't want to come out and accuse someone of driving without any attention what-so-ever no matter how clear it is that they were at fault (you can't be hit like that without it being your fault in any normal driving situation - pull out into traffic and it's your fault...)... but the only informatino in the article is that a car crash happened and someone wants a speed camera... and a lot of information as to WHO this person is (because they're sufficiently un-famous that you need to point it out). 

There's no information about the junction(s) or the visibility, lighting/weather conditions (the photos were of a sunny day...)... the drivers planned route (looks to be from Holt Lane across the A27 into Castle Goring Way).

Not a single comment from the other driver - or a comment on the state of the health of the other driver - and a 70mph - 0mph instant accelleration can be bad for you! There was a 3rd vehicle involved - no comment from that driver, or on their vehicle. Someone could have been badly injured by that crash, but the writer is more concerned by reminding us who this "celeb" might be.

Okay, this is a non-story about nothing important... but I've noticed more and more the need to read around a news story lately because there isn't a full story and this was simply the one I noticed today... is news getting dumber? Was it always this dumbed down, or thanks to the more easily available information are we noticing the discrepancies more?

stickyfiddle

This isn't news, as such, it's just reporting of a thing that happened. One could argue that "They" don't want us to think, but rather just do as we're told.

Handsome_Chris

I have been on the receiving end of what I would describe as half-arsed reporting.  Even to the point when people on this forum have been abusive to me.

Myranda

It just seems that more and more we get half a story... but then other things we get so much extra non-information that it's hard to follow what actually IS important in the story... 

Or in the case of non-news we often get so much information that it makes you wonder where the information is in other stories...

And yes, this isn't "news" it's a thing that happened, which given the number of road accidents each year was likely one of only a few dozen accidents that day - at least one of which would have involved serious or fatal injury, and we don't seem to be interested in those for news... but it's much more about the way it's reported than what's being reported. If I'm right and her actions caused this crash, where is the information on her victim?

If you're going to the trouble of reporting on things that happen, give a report on it, don't just stand and point at the thing and hope that's enough

ICBM

Lady
Castle
Audi

How much more information do you need? Definitely her fault from just those three words.

Sambostar

BBC?  Erm cast your mind back to when they were gearing up for a Syrian bombing campaign before the Parliamentary vote when the Islamic terrorists were considered 'Freedom Fighters'.  They showed a couple of puffs of a stray mortar round or a targeted missile accompanying a news report of indiscriminate mass high attitude aerial bombing by Assad on civilians.

The BBC and Channel 4 News need disbanding.  They are worse than FOX News.

Newsround in the late '80's was more informative and mature than your average National BBC News broadcast.

digitalscream

Could it, perhaps, be a distraction from the fact that she caused an accident? There's no mention of how fast the other cars were going - just her word as the apparent victim.

Phil_aka_Pip

seems a bit like local news reporting in the local rag to me. Except that it's not "news", and they don't even give half of one party's view point, they just want you to assume the "tattooed biker" is at fault, mainly by reason of his tattoos. Screw 'em.

ICBM

Having grown up in the country and knew of several "landed gentry" types who my parents made sure to give a wide berth to on the roads, I would suspect Myranda's analysis is spot on… with the exception that I'd replace 'complacent' with 'arrogant' - or both.

Drew_TNBD

Fear. Uncertainty. Doubt.

You need multiple news sources AND you need to go to the primary source in order to get a true reflection of the reality behind the news.

The news is a smokescreen to push an agenda and they do it deliberately.

Chuffola

Hang on, let me adjust the tin foil around my head!

Right

Carry on!

Fortheloveofguitar

Typical shit sheet reporting from the BBC

Business as usual

Drew_TNBD

Chuffola said:

Hang on, let me adjust the tin foil around my head!

Right

Carry on!

Ever heard of GameJournoPros ?

octatonic

I feel the news doesn't give me enough bacon.

Chuffola

Drew_fx said:

Chuffola said:

Hang on, let me adjust the tin foil around my head!

Right

Carry on!

Ever heard of GameJournoPros ?

Nope!

Drew_TNBD

Chuffola said:

Drew_fx said:

Chuffola said:

Hang on, let me adjust the tin foil around my head!

Right

Carry on!

Ever heard of GameJournoPros ?

Nope!

Maybe look into it.

You'd be surprised about how much collusion and toeing the party line there is in our media. And it doesn't require tin-foil paranoia to recognise it either!

Chuffola

I've no doubt mate. It was only in jest.

Handsome_Chris

octatonic;1065526" said:

I feel the news doesn't give me enough bacon.

I'll give you plenty bacon x

Chalky

A decade ago, a mate of mine was on the front page of the Guardian or Independent (I forget). His then girlfriend had made up a story about him being an entrepreneur. Utterly made up rubbish on the front page of a reputable broadsheet. So much news these days is made up or supplied by PR departments - very often of charities who want publicity...

TheBlueWolf

My two pennies is that all news outlets have some sort of agenda and will recount aspects of the story but not the whole story.

It's good in a way that we have t'inferwebs to search from news as I'm convinced the media drip feed us the 'news' they want us to be interested in.

thumpingrug

I know that junction, used to live not far from there and farther in law lived just refund the corner until a few years ago.  Its quite tricky and the A27 at that point is very busy.