wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (11/22/85)
In article <16900022@hpfcmt.UUCP> ron@hpfcla.UUCP writes: >I would also offer the suggestion to call the media involved if you >find glaring impossibilities/inaccuracies. Eventually they might get the >message. Just as a rather blatant example: We have all seen and been bombarded over the past week or so with exhaustive and repetitive coverage of the Geneva summit. I tend to watch the TV newscasts by flicking between the different networks' broadcasts, so I often see the same incident or event covered by different news organizations. The differences in their reports are astounding. For example, in the summit, a media event if there ever was one, with thousands of reporters and news technicians, people busily taking notes, hundreds of tape recorders rolling, two different networks will report the exact same one-line statement by some political figure *differently*!!! That is, the words quoted will differ! If they can't get their acts together well enough to relate accurately a simple string of 10 or a dozen words [remember, if different organizations report the same thing differently, we cannot tell which, if ANY of them, are right, unless we happen to be eyewitnesses ourselves], how can they be trusted to report a complicated incident like a mid-air collision or aircraft incident? In other words, don't ever believe ANYTHING based on the news... Will