Collecting News Fails: How Not to Report on Airplanes

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the phenomenon of reporting errors in aviation news, particularly focusing on mistakes related to the Airbus A380 and A320. Participants share examples of media fails, express frustration with inaccuracies, and highlight the prevalence of such errors across various news outlets.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Debate/contested, Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • One participant describes a specific incident involving CNN where an A380 was confused with an A320, suggesting a lack of knowledge among reporters.
  • Another participant notes that such reporting errors are common across many news channels, including reputable ones like the BBC, indicating a broader issue in aviation reporting.
  • A participant adds that the focus on profit may overshadow the importance of accuracy in news reporting.
  • There is a suggestion to include humorous or classic videos related to news fails, although some may contain inappropriate language.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the prevalence of reporting errors in aviation news, but there is no consensus on the underlying causes or the implications of these inaccuracies.

Contextual Notes

Participants express frustration with the media's handling of aviation stories, but the discussion does not delve into specific examples beyond the initial incident mentioned.

russ_watters
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I often post news fails because the media annoys me, so I think I'll start collecting them into one thread. Here's a doozy I saw today on CNN.com :

A3Whut.jpg


Here's how this happens:
Step 1: Two interesting stories about the Airbus A380 happen in 24 hours, which lends itself to a cluster format, with a picture.
Step 2: Someone who knows a little less than nothing about airplanes or names makes a typo or otherwise confuses an A380 with an A320.
Step 3: Needing a third "story" to properly format their news cluster, they pull a stock marketing video from Airbus for the A320 and slap it into the cluster.
Step 4: Profit!

Per unit mass, some reporter or website editor was wrong by 694%!

[Mod note: This thread is intended to be a light-hearted place for posting news fails such as typos and gaffes, in a similar spirit to the "Funny Pictures..." thread in the Current Events" forum. Please keep it tasteful and do not start any political arguments. Thanks.]
 
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It's a shame, yes. Unfortunately this is more common than it is rare. I've seen it on almost all news channels, including such serious ones as BBC. The A320 as well as the B-737 are the cash cows of their companies.
 
No news fail thread is complete without some classic videos! Warning some of these are moderately NSFW (language slips).



 
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russ_watters said:
Step 4: Profit!
Thats what its all about, nothing else matters, not even accuracy. (good thread by the way)
 
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