Prime example of how the news gets it wrong

[MossRoad]

According to Walter Cronkite, it started in 2003 with the FCC relaxing rules on media ownership.

And that's the way it is...

Why Cronkite Fretted About Media's Future - CBS News

 

[jjp8182]

While that load was dropped I'm actually impressed they were even operating there and attempted that particular lift given how much the helicopter was jostling around prior to lifting ..... almost makes me wonder if the ground crew wasn't a bit too slow on the hook-up and the helicopter was at risk of entering a vortex ring state (or was experiencing something else that made dropping the load the safest course of action). ...which I further suspect to be the case given one of the links (perhaps a secondary one) seems to show the aircraft was in use again at a different location a couple days latter (which would seem to imply a simple/straight forward investigation that was more documenting events than investigating).

While I can't say for sure I suspect that load was deliberately dropped for reasons that aren't divulged ....as for the coverage it's about what I'd expect with media that will run with initial (non-knowledgeable) eyewitnesses accounts. Which is an understandable flaw as it's pretty rare to have an uninvolved "expert" witness newsworthy events happen.....any who are involved would fairly irresponsible and taking a huge risk by speaking to the media directly as having to correct information previously provided to news sources tends to be a lose-lose situation (from what I've seen anyway).

....but I have generally low expectations for the media as a whole as I've seen them turn what should have been a simple copy & paste from a press release into a jumbled mess where the only thing that was correct in the article was the fact that something happened at that location. All the names of those involved were wrong, the description of the event was wrong and the background fluff they added was of no relation to the events ...and I'm quite sure that misreporting wasn't part of an agenda or malicious attempt so much as shear incompetence as the story still seemed to be trying to convey a neutral-to-positive take.

Just me and my :2cents: though.....

 

[orezok]

Not helicopter related, but a number of years ago when I was modernizing an elementary school we were replacing all the 5 ton ACs. A crane was used to place them. After lifting one of the units, it fell and went through the roof of the school. Fortunately no one injured.

The ironic part is that the crane had received its annual inspection the day before. The pin in the headache ball was the issue. Never heard if it was not installed properly or just missing!

 

[deezler]

The news didn't get it wrong, the witnesses did. They assumed the cable snapped when for some reason it appears the load was either released or the release failed.

Also, if you notice, the area where they are picking it up is not narrow. .

Exactly. What did the news get wrong? Not being complete and total experts in helicopter rigging methods?

These days it feels like way too many of y'all are just trying to call the news "fake" anytime you get a chance. The minor semantic details of how this load was dropped from a helicopter does not constitute a "prime example of how the news gets it wrong". I mean shoot, they even provided the video evidence so you can draw your own conclusions.

 

[JethroB]

According to Walter Cronkite, it started in 2003 with the FCC relaxing rules on media ownership.

And that's the way it is...

Why Cronkite Fretted About Media's Future - CBS News

And then throw in the 24/7 cable channels. Just how much news is there to fill 24 hours? I miss Ted Turner's early xxx Headline News channel that repeated and updated every 15 minutes.

 

[MossRoad]

And then throw in the 24/7 cable channels. Just how much news is there to fill 24 hours? I miss Ted Turner's early xxx Headline News channel that repeated and updated every 15 minutes.

I think a lot of people generically call any news that appears on their TV screen TV news when it's not. TV news is generally considered broadcast news and cable news is not considered TV news.

However, things are getting blurry because of cross-ownership of TV networks and cable channels.

Anyhow, news discussions might be better off at TopNewsTalk as we've already gotten religion and politics going here and that usually signals the end.

 

[Sigarms]

The news didn't get it wrong, the witnesses did. They assumed the cable snapped when for some reason it appears the load was either released or the release failed.

Also, if you notice, the area where they are picking it up is not narrow. It's a distorted perspective. We've had several occasions in our town where a helicopter was used to place HVAC equipment on roofs. They picked the load from the street half a block away.

You are right, the news reported what the witnesses said. Question being, if there wasn't a video, would they still report what the witnesses said? I'm not a rocket scientist, but watching the video, nothing did "snap". I would at least think there would be some kind of disclaimer as anyone watching the video should agree with my statement. The news had a "cool video" and had witnesses, so they just reported the video and what they heard without doing any fact checking to corroborate what the witnesses said.

 

[Sigarms]

Anyhow, news discussions might be better off at TopNewsTalk as we've already gotten religion and politics going here and that usually signals the end.

At least here Jerry doesn't call us names:laughing:

 

[Sigarms]

According to Walter Cronkite, it started in 2003 with the FCC relaxing rules on media ownership.

And that's the way it is...

Why Cronkite Fretted About Media's Future - CBS News

Good article.

As mentioned, for whatever reason, I thought Cronkite had integrity and you could believe him. Sad to say, perhaps no different than a "social influencer" in todays time depending on your perspective.

 

[MossRoad]

You are right, the news reported what the witnesses said. Question being, if there wasn't a video, would they still report what the witnesses said? I'm not a rocket scientist, but watching the video, nothing did "snap". I would at least think there would be some kind of disclaimer as anyone watching the video should agree with my statement. The news had a "cool video" and had witnesses, so they just reported the video and what they heard without doing any fact checking to corroborate what the witnesses said.

Our top story tonight:

Something happened during a helicopter lift project downtown today, causing something else to fall to the ground, that was removed later by what looked like a truck.