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BBC gets it wrong
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
This post relates to this article - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8436443.stm
This has made me quite angry and I'll explain why...
When this article was first published online the picture attached to it was different - it was of the wrong person. Instead the picture showed a guy with ginger hair who I later found out was also called Rupert Rosedale.
So... how did such a mistake happen? Did the reporter just do a search online and find a facebook profile picture of a guy with the same name, and then automatically assume that its the right person, without any verification of any sort? Apparently so....
I mean the sort of problems caused by this are obvious... the main one being that the guy in their old photo - well he isn't dead.
I was just wondering... how often do mistakes happen like this in the world of media? I would have just thought that they would avoid attaching photos of people unless whoever doing the attaching was sure of the identity.
Oh and.... I don't really want a debate on the events - RR was a family friend.
This has made me quite angry and I'll explain why...
When this article was first published online the picture attached to it was different - it was of the wrong person. Instead the picture showed a guy with ginger hair who I later found out was also called Rupert Rosedale.
So... how did such a mistake happen? Did the reporter just do a search online and find a facebook profile picture of a guy with the same name, and then automatically assume that its the right person, without any verification of any sort? Apparently so....
I mean the sort of problems caused by this are obvious... the main one being that the guy in their old photo - well he isn't dead.
I was just wondering... how often do mistakes happen like this in the world of media? I would have just thought that they would avoid attaching photos of people unless whoever doing the attaching was sure of the identity.
Oh and.... I don't really want a debate on the events - RR was a family friend.
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Comments
Sorry to hear that, but yeah sometimes the media is sloppy especially with things like names - a paper once quoted me, mispelling my name, demoting my rank and saying I was in a regiment which had got ammalgamated in the sixties.
More likely, they took a chance and assumed/hoped that this person would be the right person.
Xx
The problem with that (in the eyes of the media) is they have very strict deadlines, EG first to print, breaking news on the tv or websites, they want to be the first out which limits how much time they can put into it,
also do the media really care? they issue an apology and forget about it, they do not care.
They should care if it it comes to them putting up a picture of someone claiming he is dead when that particular man is still alive.
Xx
A couple of interesting websites to look at:
Tabloid Watch and Enemies of Reason
Both look into the hyperbole surrounding newspaper stories and expose them for the inaccuracies on which they are usually based.
I agree with you but they don't. I am just stating a fact, saying they should care cannot change that unfortunately,
I completely agree with you here but there is not much we can do about it, Freedom of the press and all that junk,
although one phrase comes to mind in this thread