AARoads Forum

Non-Road Boards => Off-Topic => Topic started by: roadman65 on August 27, 2015, 01:11:43 PM

Title: 110 or 250 feet? Car crashes down embankment and 4 dead
Post by: roadman65 on August 27, 2015, 01:11:43 PM
How distorted our media is with facts.

One new source says 250 feet was the drop the car fell
http://www.twcnews.com/nys/hudson-valley/news/2015/08/26/saugerties-fatal-crash.html

Then this one says over 100 feet
http://news10.com/2015/08/26/4-killed-in-single-car-crash-in-saugerties/

Well anyway, my condolences to the families of the victims and glad that generous people donated to the cause afterwards.
Title: Re: 110 or 250 feet? Car crashes down embankment and 4 dead
Post by: hotdogPi on August 27, 2015, 01:48:26 PM
Those are the exact same link.
Title: Re: 110 or 250 feet? Car crashes down embankment and 4 dead
Post by: jakeroot on August 27, 2015, 01:55:59 PM
Without seeing the second link, since you posted the same link twice, "over 100" and "250", for the purposes of this story, are practically the same thing. Some news organizations are just more exact than others.

Another example is "dozens dead" vs "36 dead". They are practically the same. It's up to the news organization to be exact or not.

I certainly prefer having an exact number, but for many, "dozens dead" sounds worse than "36 dead", and since they want a bit of drama (it's 'the news' for gods sake), they chose the former.
Title: Re: 110 or 250 feet? Car crashes down embankment and 4 dead
Post by: roadman65 on August 27, 2015, 02:21:25 PM
Quote from: jakeroot on August 27, 2015, 01:55:59 PM
Without seeing the second link, since you posted the same link twice, "over 100" and "250", for the purposes of this story, are practically the same thing. Some news organizations are just more exact than others.

Another example is "dozens dead" vs "36 dead". They are practically the same. It's up to the news organization to be exact or not.

I certainly prefer having an exact number, but for many, "dozens dead" sounds worse than "36 dead", and since they want a bit of drama (it's 'the news' for gods sake), they chose the former.
Actually it was not the same link as my dumb ass computer sometimes does not copy and pastes the previous copy link.  I usually test it in the google bar, but this time I was sure I had news 10.

Anyway 140 feet is a big variance to be around the same.
Title: Re: 110 or 250 feet? Car crashes down embankment and 4 dead
Post by: jakeroot on August 27, 2015, 02:30:33 PM
Quote from: roadman65 on August 27, 2015, 02:21:25 PM
Anyway 140 feet is a big variance to be around the same.

There may be some guess-work on the part of both news agencies, unless they got out and measured it themselves. I don't see any press releases with the exact number, nor any videos with police giving any numbers.

Regardless, I will concede that having such large variation of numbers is a bit odd.