When will TV stations get their facts right!

[Peter Miller]

Anglia TV News has just featured a Great Buckenham Tribute to Ken Wallis.

Twice they said that Ken Wallis invented the autogyo.

No he did not! Juan Cierva, a Spaniard invented the autgyro.

But since when did facts matter to a good story.

[John Privett]

Doesn't surprise me in the least Peter...

"The media" and anything "technical" are usually not a good combination. Let's face it, most newspaper accounts of an aircraft crash feature the "engine stalling" and the pilot(s) "heroically wrestling with the controls to crash in a field rather than on top of the primary school" (which was about 5 miles away anyway.)

In fact it's not just anything technical. On the rare occasion I've seen a story that I have first-hand knowledge of, the match between the report and truth is about 50:50. But hey, the facts don't always sell newspapers, do they?

[kc]

How can we trust anything else they publish on the news if they get this fact wrong that any knowledgeable person knows?
One can only assume that local news is run by youths who know very little and cannot even bother to read up the facts.

Edited By kc on 30/09/2013 19:16:20

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

Posted by Peter Miller on 30/09/2013 18:57:29:

Anglia TV News has just featured a Great Buckenham Tribute to Ken Wallis.

Twice they said that Ken Wallis invented the autogyo.

No he did not! Juan Cierva, a Spaniard invented the autgyro.

But since when did facts matter to a good story.

OR

"When will Peter Miller get his facts right???????"

The tribute was at "Old Buckenham" not Great Buckenham.

None the less a good story.

Kev

PS. No mallice intended.

[Concorde Speedbird]

I went to the event, it was great. I can post some pictures if anyone wants to see them.

CS

[kc]

The error about the inventor is utterly inescusable nowadays when it takes but seconds to do a google search and get the real facts from Wikipedia etc.

Peter, I think Kevin has you " hoist with your own petard" but dont worry we knew what you meant!

[Wingman]

Yes please CSB

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Posted by kc on 30/09/2013 19:14:59:

One can only assume that local news is run by youths who know very little and cannot even bother to read up the facts.

You're not wrong there - some years ago I was doing some work in the editorial office of a local newspaper and couldn't resist asking the young lady I was chatting to (up) about a story the paper had featured a couple of weeks beforehand about the local carnival where they'd interviewed a couple of "medieival knights".

Apparently (and unsurprisingly) jousting wasn't their "day" job and the reporter wrote that they actually worked for NASA as astronauts and repaired satellites...

As I asked about it, she started looking a little concerned and rather sheepishly said, "I wrote that feature, do you think they were winding me up?"

[Ben B]

They're all as badly informed as each other. I regularly e-mail errors in to the BBC website. Not that they reply, they just quietly correct them!

e.g. a piece on Wellington bomber saying it had special "geodetic" design. Don't think it did! Or the health article talking about swelling of the legs due to a lack of "venus" return. Even just this Sunday- they proudly did a headline saying "all toddlers in Scotland getting the flu jab"- I pointed out that

a) it's not all toddlers it's 2-3 year olds and a small number of other children in study groups

b) the exact same scheme for 2-3 year olds is also happening in Wales and Scotland

c) it's not a flu jab this year for children it's a nasal spray

They really should do some kind of due diligence and check the facts they state.

Of course getting their facts from Wikepedia might be one of the reasons why these errors occur!

[TheFlyingCrust]

And the ever increasing Americanisation of English. Our local rag reported an "Airplane Crash". It was an aeroplane and it was a forced landing. D'oh!

[001]

The favourite aviation 'fact' is 'Bleriot -the first to fly over the English Channel', or, Lindbergh the first to fly over the Atlantic.

Or, mountain biking, a sport apparently invented by the Americans in the 1970's!

My dad was riding cross country on rough trails and footpaths through woods, heathland and over hills in the South of England before WW2. In the 1950's I joined him and great fun it was too. Admittedly the bikes weren't purpose built, just ride to work drop handlebar hacks.

[Ian Jones]

Posted by kc on 30/09/2013 19:14:59:
How can we trust anything else they publish on the news if they get this fact wrong that any knowledgeable person knows?
One can only assume that local news is run by youths who know very little and cannot even bother to read up the facts.

Edited By kc on 30/09/2013 19:16:20

We cannot and should not trust anything from anybody of any age unless there is compelling corroborating evidence as to the accuracy of the “facts” stated.

[Peter Miller]

The Wellington featured geodetic construction.

Kevin, I am hoping to quality for a job at Anglia News

The classic one from Anglia News was when they reported that someone who was having a wedding anniversary party in a Dakota (I think) hired a World War two jet fighter to film the event in the air.

It was actually a Yak 18.

Not a fighter, Not a jet and not WWII. Now three facts wrong out of three takes some beating!

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

OK - I'm confused!

Ben, why don't you think the Wellington featured geodetic construction - surely it's the best known example of its use in aviation?

...and Crispy, other than semantics over balloonatics crossing the Channel first (or are you referring to Bleriot's viewpoint of it being La Manche) and Lindbergh's being the first solo crossing, why are the Bleriot/Lindbergh examples so wrong?

Or have I been guilty of reading too many papers and missed the real facts somewhere along the line?

Edited By Martin Harris on 01/10/2013 10:38:28

[Alan Dorrell]

My wife likes quiz programmes on TV which I usually hear but rarely watch. I am frequently amazed at the lack of knowledge, historical, literary, etc., that contestants display. But then I could not answer questions about "celebraties", pop stars, soap opera topics and characters, footballers and any sports except cycling.

Alan.

[Rich too]

On a technical programme it is unacceptable. Anyone catch the episode of Wheeler Dealers where a 911 owner offers advice to Mike, watch out for the goo in the oil, being a sure sign of water and blown head gasket - on an aircooled 911 - really??!!

Rich

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Posted by Chris P. Bacon on 30/09/2013 23:42:40:

Or, mountain biking, a sport apparently invented by the Americans in the 1970's!

My dad was riding cross country on rough trails and footpaths through woods, heathland and over hills in the South of England before WW2. In the 1950's I joined him and great fun it was too. Admittedly the bikes weren't purpose built, just ride to work drop handlebar hacks.

When we were youngsters in the sixties we took great delight in scouring the hedgerows and local dumps for bicycle bits and building what we called "trackers" for rough riding around the nearby lanes and tracks - the main feature being "cowhorn" handlebars.

Something that I fear the "Playstation Generation" will never appreciate.

Edited By Martin Harris on 01/10/2013 11:58:25

[Gazza58]

Careful chaps, we are in danger here of sounding like grumpy old men....anyone know of a queue we can all go and stand in and have a good moan ?

Gazza

[Rich too]

Haha! What do you mean? I am a grumpy old git, my wife keeps telling me!

Rich

[kc]

Several more people here are "hoist with their own petard" ....
Porsche 911 are now watercooled and no longer air cooled!
It all goes to show dont trust anything without checking. It's so simple now with Wikipedia, Google etc. But dont trust anything from just one source.
We are grumpy because in our day one would get fired for an error, nowadays people in high paid jobs get away with serious errors and a dozen low paid staff are laid off to save the money to pay his /her salary!

[Rich too]

KC, I am aware that they are no longer aircooled - what's your point? The programme was around a 3.0 SC - aircooled.

Rich

[Braddock, VC]

The only media with a shred of credibility is/was the sport on sunday. It makes no pretence about disguising that what it publishes is absolute gonads.

But we'd better tread carefully here, there are some world renown journos within earshot, inc.PM.

Edited By Braddock, VC on 01/10/2013 13:02:41

[Andrew767]

Posted by Martin Harris on 01/10/2013 11:57:17:

Posted by Chris P. Bacon on 30/09/2013 23:42:40:

Or, mountain biking, a sport apparently invented by the Americans in the 1970's!

My dad was riding cross country on rough trails and footpaths through woods, heathland and over hills in the South of England before WW2. In the 1950's I joined him and great fun it was too. Admittedly the bikes weren't purpose built, just ride to work drop handlebar hacks.

When we were youngsters in the sixties we took great delight in scouring the hedgerows and local dumps for bicycle bits and building what we called "trackers" for rough riding around the nearby lanes and tracks - the main feature being "cowhorn" handlebars.

Something that I fear the "Playstation Generation" will never appreciate.

Edited By Martin Harris on 01/10/2013 11:58:25

Ha ha! Martin, i remember doing the same thing....happy days indeed. However Mountain bikes as we know them today were developed by Gary Fisher (The fish man) in California in the early 1970s.

Andrew

[Ben B]

I still stand by the notion that it's a geodesic structure not a geodetic structure. Geodetics is the to do with measuring the earth.

Now there are some rumours that it was a certain Mr Wallis who decided to call it geodetic structures rather than geodesic structures but that might just be Nazi propaganda

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

I read the comment about Bleriot and Lyndberg and was puzzled at first as well Martin. But being very accurate Bleriot was not "the first person to fly over the channel". Latham for example had "flown over the channel" a few days or so before - true he crash landed part way across, but technically I suppose he did "fly over the channel" in the narrowest interpretation of those words. The balloon crossing of the channel I personally would not count - ballooning is not "flying" in my view - its "floating"!

Similiarly Lyndberg was not the first to "fly over the Atlantic" - indeed he was not even the first to "fly across the Atlantic". But he was the first to fly cross the Atlantic non-stop single handed!

BEB

PS I agree with Ben - I say its Geodesic!

PPS When will the media get things right? When they stop judging themselves by the sole criteria of how many copies they sell or how many people watch.