Red Faces At A Local Rag

[Eric Potts]

Martyn Smith: an apology From The Argus)

They are not very good at checking things are they

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Jesus. I would be livid and very tempted to sue the pathetic rag, donating all the money to some relevant charity.

 

[Barry Izbak]

That'll teach them to use sources other than NSC.
We would never have made such a stupid mistake

 

[CHAPPERS]

Dicks.

 

[ManOnTheRun]

Surely someones for the high jump over that .. Shocking!

 

[clippedgull]

This is going to cost NewsQuest a few quid! Idiotic reporter and sub. Let's hope they join the mass ranks of the unemployed.

Is it possible to have a worse untruth printed about you?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Not just the Argus. The Daily Telegraph as well.

The Press Association are to blame.

Dragon's Den - Telegraph

 

[strings]

If that were me, being incorrectly being labeled as a paedophile in the press, I would want compensation.

Terrible journalism.

 

[Hunting 784561]

They should have checked, double checked, and then checked the facts again one more time before printing stuff like that.

Appalling.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

How much money would you like as compensation for such a false story to be printed about you?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

How much money would you like as compensation for such a false story to be printed about you?

If that's an offer ... just stay away from NSC.

 

[Martinf]

Someone at PA will have received the bollocking of a lifetime and/or will be seeking alternative employment.

 

[getreal1]

They deserve this - they need to close, morph, or spend more money on journalists. The present crop are lazy and most of the time you wonder about their education. The most basic spelling and errors in grammar are frequently apparent.

 

[Gwylan]

he most basic spelling and errors in grammar are frequently apparent.

Yeah, but Hove Born & Bred isn't actually employed by The Argus.


Back to the point, there's a whole generation of journalists out there who just use the Internet for all their research because they don't have the time to research a story more thoroughly. It's no good singling out The Argus for this, all newspapers are feeling the pinch. The only wonder is that there are not more errors. This is a particularly bad one, but it's easy to see how it happened: time pressure to get a story up; a quick look at Google - "Oh look, Martyn Smith did Dragon's Den, let's add that to the piece" and before you know it, it's in a dozens of newspapers.

But I recall several threads in the past year along the lines of "I wouldn't buy The Argus" and "I wouldn't pay to look at websites" so, if you want to know why newspapers are cutting costs and are so under-staffed they make basic mistakes, take a look in the mirror.

 

[strings]

I'm still shocked about this story.

Does anyone remember what happened after the death of Sarah Payne? One national paper printed names and locations of Paedophiles. A lot of these people were attacked and had their property damaged and vandalised and were forced to flee the areas they lived. Problem was, that some of these people subsequently turned out not to be paedophiles.

This is why, in a nutshell, I am so appaled by this story and sloppy journalism.

 

[Gazwag]

what's worse this story or the pm getting a letter wrong in somebodies name, bet this one doesnt get any coverage like the pm one did despite the fact that this is a million times worse than the pm non story

 

[Deleted User X18H]

Yeah, but Hove Born & Bred isn't actually employed by The Argus.


.

How do you know?

See how easy it is to make accusations about people without knowing the full truth! So the Argus made a mistake they have apologised move on.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

So the Argus made a mistake they have apologised move on.

In one sentence ... confirmation that appalling standards of journalism are, apparently, acceptable these days.

 

[eastlondonseagull]

The thing is, if the PA were actually in court to report on proceedings, they should've had all the facts to hand. Quite how they messed up so royally is unbelievable. I wonder whether their court reporter was actually in court itself... maybe someone mentioned the Dragons' Den link and he ran with it without fact-checking. Idiots.

The Argus should have done their homework, granted, but you do tend to trust what the wires say.

.

 

[Deleted User X18H]

In one sentence ... confirmation that appalling standards of journalism are, apparently, acceptable these days.

But I'm not a journalist. I couldn't be, my grammar is too poor. So do you assume the Argus only employs journalists?