Todays Taipei Times.
[quote]Motorcyclist dies after being hit by NSB agent’s car
CNA
TAIPEI
A motorcyclist died yesterday morning after colliding with a car driven by a National Security Bureau (NSB) agent who was on his way to join President Chen Shui-bian’s (
The media runs the country.
There is already a response to this in the Chinese press, but much farther back in the paper and smaller than the original article. FWIW. “Zhongguo Shibao” had a piece criticizing the coverage and calling for journalists to “get the facts straight before covering a story”.
It is worth mentioning that the original Central News Agency headline read as follows:
MOTORCYCLIST DIES AFTER COLLIDING WITH SECURITY AGENT’S CAR
The headline you mention was created by a Taipei Times copy editor.
Is awkward English like this really necessary?
“However, verifying whether Pang ran a red light, as claimed by the agent, will have to await further investigation, the police said.”
Let’s not forget the Taiwan News (though sometimes we may want to):
“Chen’s advance convoy kills motorcyclist” :shock:
I don’t see anything wrong with it as it does exactly what it says on the tin. The guy did die after being hit by the NSB car and he was a motorcyclist. The copy editor probably didn’t have room for “Motorcyclist dies after first colliding with a car then careering across the road and hitting another that happened to be under the control of an NSB agent. Oh, and the motorcyclist was drunk and he may (or may not) have run a red light”.
Give the poor copy editor a break.
How about “Motorcyclist dies after colliding with a car”!
And of what news value is that?
It contains the same news value, the guy is dead. What it is not? Sensation.
All newspapers pump their headlines up a bit to some extent. It’s almost an artform and gives us something to laugh at.
There was once a competition in a satirical magazine (Private Eye maybe?) in which readers could send in a sensational headline for a real news item that was actually as bland as a richtea biscuit.
The winner was something like: “Queen Mum meets Ira.” That’s Ira Godfrey, resident at a Shady Pines-style old people’s home in Wakefield, not the Irish Republican Army!
Long live unnecessaily sensational headlines.
I heard that one of the local weekly tabloids was originally planning to run the story as: “President Chen’s advance convoy brutally runs over motorcyclist”.
However, due to space limitations, the Editorial Board has changed it to “President Chen brutally runs over motorcyclist”.
Nox is obviously confusing newspapers with some kind of public service.
However, I’ll gladly hold my hands above my head, raise my eyebrows and agree that some scurrilous rags tend to ratchet up the newsworthyness of some stories just to sell a few more copies, especially in Britain. And it doesn’t just happen in newspapers. A friend of mine recently heard a news report on Radio Clyde, an “award winning” radio station in Scotland, which went something along the lines of this:
NEWSCASTER: The strike has brought chaos to Scotland’s busy railway stations and a number of commuters have had their plans shattered by call-offs.
FIRST 'DEVASTATED’PUNTER: I went to get the 9am train from Glasgow to Edinburgh but there wasn’t one on, so I had to wait for the 9.15am train…which wasn’t too bad.
Who says nothing ever happens in Scotland?
Rory, perhaps there should be more newpaper headlines like “Driver dies after being hit by tree” or even better “Driver in hospital after being rammed by house”.
It would fit the new campaign (Is it one already?)against electric scooters - which are of course responsible for all the accidents they are involved in.
So, why still bother writing news articles reporting about a few things and how they really happened? Cut&Paste from novels could be much more fun: “The driver died due to a lethal overdose of brickwall, taken while under the influence of a bottle Tequila and a Ferrari.”
Or does anyone here actually buy a newspaper to find out what happened in the world?
I know the answer to that one. After you have finished reading all the headlines, you could go back and read the actual articles too.
The above headlines that seem slanted in Chen Shuibian’s disfavour come from the pro-Chen Taiwan News and Taipei Times. So what headline was used in the China Post, which tends to be critical of Chen Shuibian? Did the latter report the incident at all?
p.s.[quote=“Soddom”]The media runs the country.[/quote]That should be “the media run the country” - One medium, many media.
I’ve never studied mass media at school, but shouldn’t news value come from an event itself and its impact on other related events or even on the whole society, instead of from misleading or sensational headlines?
Well yes! But this is Taiwan!! :o
I guess the definition of what is ‘news value’ changes with several channels devoted to 24 hour news coverage on this tiny island.
This wasn’t the issue anyway but your prescriptivism is unfounded. Media, like data are two words that, in contemporary usage, are commonly followed by either singular or plural verb forms. You can find plenty of examples such as these from Cobuild. You may disagree, but I feel that commonly accepted mass usage should shape a language not outdated grammatical tenets.
[quote]and quality of the media has improved greatly in recent
the Chinese media has reported another group of
of the state-controlled Iraqi media has been abusive in the extreme. It’
President De Klerk for what the local media has dubbed `crisis talks". The
said to be out of context though the media have helped to play Grant’s tune to
executions reported by the official media have been carried out immediately
News Agency a week ago, the official media have had little to say on the[/quote]
FISH HOOKED ON ROD
Singer Fish out of Marillion last night paid homage to legendary mock-Scots cockney rocker Rod Stewart.
“I’ve got a couple of his albums, and think they’re really good,” the balding porn-addict said.
Stewart was unavailable for comment.
MALLETT HAMMERS NAIL
Kids TV presenter Timmy Mallett last night hit out at the latest album by Geordie actor/singer/alcoholic Jimmy Nail.
“I haven’t heard it yet, but a friend of mine has, and he didn’t really like it,” said Mallett.
Nail was unavailable for comment.
Perhaps Nox and his moral crusaders would like to get their whiter than white knickers in a twist over these.