Bad Reporting Fuels the Fire

[old man emu]

Over the past two weeks the US media, Left, Right and Centre, has done a great job of raising the hysteria surrounding Trump's Executive Orders through bad reporting. Not that the media hasn't been quick to broadcast events. The problem is that commentary on those events doesn't provide the background that good journalism requires. Let me give an example.

 

Let's look at the two recent aviation incidents. For those of us with in interest and knowledge of aviation, we have most likely decided that the cause of the Washington DC is most likely to be pilot error. The other one could be simply a mechanical failure, since it occured on takeoff. However, the media has homed in on Trump's political attacks on the FAA management. Sure Trump sacked several heads of air safety organisation in the days prior to the incident, but those people were not sitting in the control tower.  Instead the media has focused on the effects of DEI policies, which were in fact introduced by Trump during his first term.

 

What reporting has there been of the short-staffing of the control tower arising from lack of adequate funding? Trump implies that air traffic controllers can be plucked from the lines of the unemployed and immediately be seated at a console to handle air traffic.  Don't forget that a few days earlier he had caused emails to be sent out offering a chance for Federal employees to leave their jobs with a bit of a golden handshake, so he could fill their places with loyalists to his agenda. If I were an FAA air traffic controller, I would be grossly offended by Trump's inference that I was unintelligent and incompetent at carrying out a job I had been trained for. What Trumps said must be seen as defamatory. Sounds a bit like Hitler's approach to placing Party members in government jobs.

[facthunter]

Read my 5 mins ago comment on the other forum  It ties in with this. Nev

[onetrack]

You all obviously fail to understand that if a MAGA appointee was in the control tower or in charge of the FAA, this crash would never have happened, and no aviation crashes will ever occur again, after those MAGA appointments are made!

[nomadpete]

All future applicants for control tower jobs, must wear a red baseball cap with suitable wording, and undergo a genitalia check.

 

All will be well.

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Air traffic control along with all other government functions will be delivered by AI using some Musk company

[old man emu]

My post is badly written. I should have made my intention clear, which was that the media has been shooting from the hip with its reporting. The media from both sides hasn't bothered to concentrate on the operational reason for the Washington incident. To my mind, it was caused by human error. Unfortunately I have to accuse the helicopter pilot of making the error, based on what seemingly factual information I've seen. The ATC operator did broadcast a warning to the helicopter pilot, and I can only assume that the commuter aircraft was established on a standard final approach. I haven't heard if the commuter plane's crew made any broadcasts. Happily, all the radio traffic at the time of the incident will have been recorded, so that will aid the investigation.

 

Trump's attack on the FAA heads is completely irrelevant to the cause of the incident. Actually it's not because he sacked them a few days before, and the FAA's DEI policy was introduced by Trump during his first term. A consequence of Trump's DEI rant is that the family of one of the military personnel has refused to disclose the victim's name. Why? Because the victim was female and the family fears being attacked by MAGA types. By the way, both pilots were White.

[facthunter]

There are 3 people active in that operation aboard the Heli 2 at the controls AND One actively monitoring and directing. The Mission they were Practicing was unsuitable to be mixed with High density RPT traffic and at night. The Sikorski is difficult to see, Purposely. The Tower was undermanned and staff have been consistently overworked.  Whoever allowed it to take place in those circumstances is responsible.  Nev,

[Jerry_Atrick]

 

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

The first media report I saw, as a layman watching TV, was that the helicopter was at 350ft when it should have been at 200ft. If that's true, then why the extra height of 150ft?

[Jerry_Atrick]

The problem is, at early stages, all sorts of reports and claims come out - on MSM and  social media - it is hard to work out what is going on.

 

This talks to OME's point about responsible journalism. There is nothing wrong with a news organisation saying something like "there has been a fatal accident.. What we do know about it is... <what it is they know about it>; Authorities are investigating the cause and when there is an update, you will be the first to hear."

 

But, the ptoblem is there is a pressure to be the first to report groundbreaking news and info about news for both MSM and social media commentators, because that brings eyeballs, and with eyeballs comes advertising revenue. While that happens, anyone that sounds authoritative will get some air time. If they get it wrong, and the real facts come out some time later, the old reporting has faded from people's minds anyway, so they rarely even think about going back and admitting they were wrong in the first place, anyway. No matter how much distress it causes the close family and friends of those, in this case, who have died.

 

I also heard that the helicopter as 150' higher than it shoudl have been. Could still be the case, but that is some fairly tightly controlled airspace.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 2 by Jerry_Atrick

[Jerry_Atrick]

1 hour ago, old man emu said:

the media has been shooting from the hip with its reporting.

Sadly, the media has been shooting from the hip many times over and for a long time, with aviation accidents, and reporting in general. The MSM is as about as reliable as social media these days. In fact, for Aussie least biased opinion, I tend to follow a few youtubers: Swollen Pickles, Knights in Shining Llama, and latterly, Punter Politics. They seem to look at the facts and then apply opinion. I still watch Friendly Jordies as he does some hard hitting and courageous reporting, even though I find him too biased to the ALP on many things.  Obviously, even though I don't agree with all of his opnions, Michael West is a go to for me, too. And of course, fugitive journalist, Shane Downing is also one I keep any eye on and he gets a few £ per month, as do the first two, to help keep them going.  There are others I follow, too... including a few that lean differently to me, so see what they say..

 

The problem is, as the world is more polarised, and I think Trump being elected is a product of it, not creating it, less and less people are willing to hear the other side, and importantly try and see it from the other side's view. Take immigration.. it is a real problem here in the UK. I think it is more perceived because of the way the press report it, which means the real issues don't get dealt with, as pollies have a habit of thinking about thenext election and will do what will win votes in the immediate term rather than fix the issue. Everything is about the "boat people" coming in, but they only make up 10% of the total net migration take (and thereefore, around 3% of the immigration numbers). If overcrowing, which is one of the main reasons being cited is an issue, the focus surely should be on the other 97% of immigrants and making sure, on the whole, a more manageable number is being allowed in though legal routes.. surely?  That is not to say drop the ball on boat people, but the press is pushing an agenda that makes it hard for pollies to react to the real issues.

[Bruce Tuncks]

I reckon Trump was elected as a reaction against the "woke" lot. While I personally would have voted for Kamala, I do admit to feeling she was dead wrong to "support" the gender-diversity nonsense that has enabled a male boxer to KO women with one punch, Yes, he ticked the correct box and was competing as a woman.

On the subject of gender-diversity, I support males in all areas of competition except for sport, where the advantage of male structure is just too much to overcome. Supporting this is the observation that there is NO example of a woman claiming to be a man to compete in sports.

There is a story ( cant verify if it's true ) of an Australian world-champion winning team being easily beaten by a team of schoolboys.

[Jerry_Atrick]

3 minutes ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

Supporting this is the observation that there is NO example of a woman claiming to be a man to compete in sports.

Er.. yes there is... and in boxing, too: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricio_Manuel

[Bruce Tuncks]

Wow!!!! How do you figure he was really a woman all the time?

[facthunter]

Down through ALL history there has always been intolerance of Gender diverse People and women being regarded as possessions and inferior. About time we progressed a bit. We are now going backwards at a great rate. Do we go back to burning witches? Nev.

Edited February 16 by facthunter

[Jerry_Atrick]

Ahhh the good old daze

[spacesailor]

We celebrate it ! .

spacesailor

[facthunter]

You're JOKING I Hope. Nev

[spacesailor]

Halloween 

Sorry my bad . Thats the " dead guys " night . SAMHAIN .

Pagan festival for the end of ' harvest ' & start of the dark cold days of,winter .

spacesailor

[facthunter]

Halloween is a USA thing. The Christ thing has been commercialised. .  Nev

[spacesailor]

Halloween. 

Kids in " witches " costumes.  

What are they celebrating? .

spacesailor

[facthunter]

You tell ME. I have no idea.  Nev

[old man emu]

Getting back to the topic of bad reporting.

 

Does anyone know of Trump's 25% tariffs have begun yet?

 

I was watching a video allegedly about the bad effects of the tariffs on sales of US agricultural products. What attracted my attention to the reporting was that the creator was saying that sales of those products had fallen so much that producers were facing ruin. To my thinking, at the moment there are no 25% tariffs in force, and if they were, then they would apply to products coming into the USA, not going out.

 

In other words, is the message of the video false? Clearly since the video has an anti-Trump bias, could it have been made by radical left-wingers who used lies to instill fear into the US population?

[facthunter]

The "THREAT" of something creates an effect/response.  Nev

[octave]

Could it be that people are boycotting in anticipation of tarrifs? I know that in Canada people are boycotting American goods