A news piece which typifies the state of modern urinalism. The "reporter" starts out by talking of how the train went out of control and derailed. This did not happen and I suppose we should not be at all surprised. Anyhow: http://www.ktvq.com/story/36706099/montana-rail-link-shows-extent-of-noxon-derailment-cleanup
Did the train not derail? "Went out of control" is clunky but if the train ended up not on the rails then clearly something went wrong. If MRL is like just about any other railroad I wouldn't be surprised if the press releases and what actually happened don't totally match up. I don't think I know a single railroader who wasn't wrongly fired at some point and later reinstated, blamed for something that actually was out of their control.
Loose reporting also serves to support the inanity we all see every time railroading is involved in a Hollywood plot. We are made to believe that Firemen and Engineers frequently bicker about how the train should be run and that dispatching decisions are often the cause of heated arguments on the radio between the Dispatcher and Engineer. This kind of faked up drama drives me nuts. Producers and writers don't hire technical advisors because accuracy would serve to undermine impossible story lines.
Use of such terminology, when addressing a general public ignorant of railroading, will most often conjure up errant images such as of speeding, loss of traction on slick pavement and the resulting end, etc.... It is a very, very poor choice of words by a reporter who clearly would not know a train or railroad, if it ran right straight into his back pocket.
I'm a conductor on one of the western Class 1 railroads in a big city. We make the news at least once a month or so. Almost always I'll run across the crew who made the news and the amount of wrong information is astounding. They can't even get basic facts right. As a result, I have very little confidence on anything I see on the news. It's really pathetic.
Years ago a relative owned a small weekly county newspaper and I noted that the railroad related articles were informative and well written. I mentioned to my relative that accurate rail reporting was unusual and I asked how he did it. He replied that he knew a guy in town who was knowledgeable about railroading and he'd always ask the man to give his rail stories a quick review before they went to press. I wish large scale media was as responsible.
Many folks, (far too many people!), are under the impression that all media are a public service. They are not. Excepting the very specific "PBS" arena, media is a 'for profit' enterprise. Their job is first and foremost to make money, as much as is possible, for the owners and investors- just like all other businesses.
The media is for profit - always has been. Today's media at the ground level is all kids - kids that don't know their nose from a port-a-pot about 99% of the things they are required to write reports on. Their Editors are only one step removed from the ground level, they understand 1.5% of the things that cross their desk. Inside of 10 years they will all move on to other careers, disillusioned by their opportunity to be a Journalist and still having to pay off thousands in student loans. At the top levels, the media is fat cats looking to stash funds out of reach of the tax man through all the loop holes their kind have lobbied to make legal over the years. Buying and selling influence and privilege throughout all levels of government.
Do you mean they lie to us? . . . Obfuscating the truth? . . . Or just twisting things? . . . Yup. known this for the last 40 years.
