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Is this BBC report fair. Opinions wanted before I complain.

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  • November 16, 2013 at 1:41 pm #20215
    Neil753

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-24937699

    The poor cyclist is described as in a “crash with a bus”, the headline describes cyclists, in the opinion of bus drivers, as “unbelievable”, and the accompanying media just takes the one sided reporting up a notch. The reporter makes no attempt to balance the report by interviewing any cyclists. Do people think this is all a little biased, or is my judgement clouded because I happen to be a cyclist? I’m tempted to complain about this, but I’ll go by what readers think.

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  • November 18, 2013 at 1:34 pm #763027
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    dave atkinson

    Luminosity wrote:
    The OED

    Luminosity wrote:

    The OED says accident is:

    you have to look at legal precedent here, not the OED. everyone stopped using accident for a reason. it has a specific meaning in law.

    November 18, 2013 at 1:22 pm #763025
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    Luminosity

    Dave Atkinson wrote:it

    Dave Atkinson wrote:
    it explicitly implies no blame to either party. which is why even the police have stopped using it.

    The OED says accident is:


    An unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury.

    So, unless the incident was a purposeful attempt to maim a cyclist, it can be an accident, wouldn’t you agree? If we don’t know that then it would be better to say:

    “there was a collision today involving a bus and a cyclist” or vv.

    Again, much more semantically neutral than

    “a bus collided with a cyclist” or vv.

    November 18, 2013 at 12:48 pm #763023
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    dave atkinson

    ‘accident’ most assuredly
    ‘accident’ most assuredly *isn’t* neutral. it explicitly implies no blame to either party. which is why even the police have stopped using it.

    November 18, 2013 at 12:46 pm #763021
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    Luminosity

    Simon_MacMichael

    Simon_MacMichael wrote:

    Saying that a cyclist, car, whatever, was “in a collision” with another vehicle isn’t “factually inaccurate” – it’s neutral

    Sorry to disagree but it’s not – and it all comes down to semantics.

    “a bus today was in a collision with a bicycle”

    “a cyclist today was in a collision with a bus”

    In the first instance what people will generally glean is that is was the BUS that did the colliding; in the second that it was the CYCLIST.

    “an accident involving” is neutral.

    November 18, 2013 at 9:40 am #763019
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    Simon_MacMichael

    Luminosity wrote:The BBC

    Luminosity wrote:
    The BBC usually seems to report that a cyclist was “in collision” with a lorry/bus etc. And yes, that’s factually inaccurate – unless the BBC had called in the police etc to ascertain whether or not it’s the truth (very unlikely).

    My experience is that in the immediate aftermath of a fatality, the police will do no more than refer you to the statement they are likely to have issued – whether you’re the BBC, or road.cc.

    Saying that a cyclist, car, whatever, was “in a collision” with another vehicle isn’t “factually inaccurate” – it’s neutral, and very often is the only thing the media is able to say until further details emerge.

    To say that someone “collided” with another vehicle is very different, though – it implies a specific situation happened, and shouldn’t be used until facts are known (often, not until a coroner’s inquest or a trial).

    November 17, 2013 at 6:10 pm #763017
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    Luminosity

    For a change, this report
    For a change, this report seems OK. It’s just a quote according to the bus drivers. However one might say that the reporter has biased the report in favour of cyclists:

    Reporter: “Where the cyclist was hit last night…died after being hit by a bus”

    That seems to load the argument negatively towards the bus (if you see what I mean). Sure the bus was involved but where did the fault lie – from this it seems it was the fault of the bus.

    The BBC usually seems to report that a cyclist was “in collision” with a lorry/bus etc. And yes, that’s factually inaccurate – unless the BBC had called in the police etc to ascertain whether or not it’s the truth (very unlikely). I’m sure we’ve had this discussion before but an accurate report would state that there was an accident involving a lorry/bus and a cyclist or vv.

    As for interviewing the bus drivers and only giving their point of view on this report – that’s fine. A balanced broadcast argument can, over time, interview and show the different sides of the argument; it doesn’t have to do it all in one report. I’ve seen much worse. And complained to the BBC. Their complaints procedure is pretty useless though as William said. Much better (IMO) to contact the manager of the LBC or local TV station manager and discuss the perseption of bias with them.

    November 16, 2013 at 6:50 pm #763015
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    Neil753

    William Black wrote:Just a

    William Black wrote:
    Just a quick look elsewhere on the BBC website, they tend to write ‘boy hit by car” “79 year old man dies after being by car” “fatally injured by a van”.

    I know you can always go looking for interpretation but the BBC do tend to word cycling deaths very negatively towards the victim Eg “cyclist died after colliding with lorry”

    I’ve not complained to the BBC in this instance as they are really quite shoddy dealing with feedback in my experience.

    That’s very interesting, William. I think the most depressing one I came across recently was the boris bike girl who apparently, “died after crashing into a lorry”, and I’ve come across many reports where even when the photo shows quite clearly that the cyclist has been struck from behind, the cyclist has still apparently “collided with a vehicle”. remember the couple on the tandem, mown down by a disqualified drunk driver on the wrong side of the road? they apparently were “doing” the colliding too.

    Is there some sort of deep seated bias, I wonder?

    November 16, 2013 at 6:41 pm #763013
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    Gman59c

    Equating the way cyclists are
    Equating the way cyclists are treated in the media to racism is really poor taste.

    November 16, 2013 at 6:25 pm #763011
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    kie7077

    Go for it, it really is in
    Go for it, it really is in poor taste such victim blaming whilst 5 cyclists have just died.

    We are so used to prejudice against cyclists that it even becomes hard to see it. Prejudice against other races or the other sex is rightly shunned, other prejudices aren’t – why not?

    // Excise in role change:

    [after a white person runs over a black person]

    [BBC] London white drivers on black people: “They’re unbelievable”

    14 November 2013 Last updated at 09:27 GMT

    A black man has been killed in a crash with a white driver in east London making him the fifth black person to die on London’s roads in nine days.

    BBC London 94.9 reporter Jason Rosam reports from the crash scene in Whitechapel Road and asks white people what it is like sharing the roads with black people.

    // Exercise over, how does that look?

    November 16, 2013 at 5:42 pm #763009
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    William Black

    Just a quick look elsewhere
    Just a quick look elsewhere on the BBC website, they tend to write ‘boy hit by car” “79 year old man dies after being by car” “fatally injured by a van”.

    I know you can always go looking for interpretation but the BBC do tend to word cycling deaths very negatively towards the victim Eg “cyclist died after colliding with lorry”

    I’ve not complained to the BBC in this instance as they are really quite shoddy dealing with feedback in my experience.

    November 16, 2013 at 4:56 pm #763007
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    sm

    It’s an attributed quote.
    It’s an attributed quote. Don’t like seeing headlines like that but I would also agree. Some (note use of word!) cyclists are unbelievable. Just like car drivers and pedestrians. The idiocy of a small percentage of the human race never ceases to amaze me. Unfortunately it also makes the headlines.

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