Fuel Shortages - a case for press accountability.

[onesea]

When is a news agency going to do some real investigative journalism?

I have had seen and been directly involved in incidents which the press have covered.  There is frequently little collation between actual events and the press report.  I am sure there are plenty on here that are in the same situation.

 

The COVID pandemic has been so badly reported, I have had some one tell the death rate for the pandemic was bigger than that of WW2 450,00, WW1 was much more devastating 895,000 and that’s not including much larger populations.

COVID is about 1/4 presently 136,000 depending on how you want to twist the numbers.

Off topic Some of the figures are interesting.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_casualties_of_war
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_disasters_in_Great_Britain_and_Ireland_by_death_toll
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/

Believe me I am not one for censorship I have been to places where it exists and it’s scary.  However the press at the moment have free reign and no accountability, as the present crisis only demonstrates.

 

A balanced report EG

 

reporting uk driver shortages and including Europe wide driver shortages, would not go a miss. Including differences in standards.
 

A report showing fuel usage before and after Friday, that’s what they should be telling us.

Instead of just reporting the faults of a system, reporting the genuine costs of how much it will cost to correct.  Anyone with an ageing pet will know hopefully only as they get older, you have choices to make cost v quality of life and affordability.
 

So we don’t have to believe the government they can state facts not sensationalism.

Edited September 28, 2021 by onesea

[fastbob]

Good luck with that .

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

It's not the press that are the problem. It's the public. The press only provide what the public wants.

 

And as I think @Bender commented recently in another thread about petrol shortages, the public are somewhat lacking in credibility.

 

[S-Westerly]

I think it's a bit catch 22 as yes the press provide what they think the public  wants and then hype it to the nth degree. Also when accidents or incidents get reported the bias of the particular reporter can affect what gets reported and thus how the public perceives whatever is being reported on. Throw in social media with all its "alternative facts" (what used to be called lies) and you have a recipe for disaster and mayhem. 

[Fozzie]

The fuel shortage in a nutshell

 

Media: BP has run out of fuel in a few stations due to a lorry driver shortage

People: AHHHHH!!! BUY OUT EVERYWHERE ELSE'S FUEL AND MAKE A SHORTAGE HAPPEN

 

The pandemic in a nutshell

 

Media before a lockdown: A Lockdown?! The government is taking control!

Media after a lockdown: Removing restrictions this early!? The Government is willfully killing people!

... I can't even capture what people are doing in a sentence, you have two extreme groups either side who are terrified, one of the virus they seem to think is bouncing down the road towards them. One of a vaccine, even though the spike protein in both virus/vaccine is the same they think it will blow up their heart/balls. 

 

 

[skyrider]

well i went straight to the pump at our local petrol station and filled up with £40 of derv no problem this morning 

[husoi]

What surprises me the most is the supermarkets running out of frozen vegetables.

This would be the last think I expected running out of stock in a country where vegetables is decoration... 

 

Fuel shortage only fuels the appetite for EV's  (see what I've done here?)  

[Steve_M]

It doesn’t help that the public read the headlines and fail to read beyond them, nor understand the context. 

 

[husoi]

Then goes worse when you watch some muppet going walking along queuing traffic near several petrol stations on a over 10 min piece.

[fastbob]

4 hours ago, husoi said:

Then goes worse when you watch some muppet going walking along queuing traffic near several petrol stations on a over 10 min piece.

I don't think you've read that back to yourself before posting . 

[onesea]

7 hours ago, S-Westerly said:

I think it's a bit catch 22 as yes the press provide what they think the public  wants and then hype it to the nth degree. Also when accidents or incidents get reported the bias of the particular reporter can affect what gets reported and thus how the public perceives whatever is being reported on. Throw in social media with all its "alternative facts" (what used to be called lies) and you have a recipe for disaster and mayhem. 

I am going to play devils advocate, the press supply what will get the clicks/ views/ readers or ratings. Not what the public should be told, often reporting the loudest voice not the facts behind it.

Journalists do not reach for the information behind facts.

You must of have seen Ships reported as tankers because they have a few cubes of bunkers onboard where the containers on deck tell a different story.

Journalists should have a responsibility to report in a balanced factual manner. Without which there is a recipe for alternative facts disaster and mayhem.

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

As the saying goes...

 

You cannot hope to bribe or twist 

the average British journalist.

But seeing what the man will do,

unbidden, there's no incentive to.

 

 

 

 

[husoi]

16 hours ago, fastbob said:

I don't think you've read that back to yourself before posting . 

Never do...