From today’s Honolulu Star-Advertiser:
Ok. Headlines like this appear all the time.
From the text itself, the timeline was something like this.
Person on motorcycle was hit by a car. Apparently the person wasn’t injured because, according to the headline, after getting hit by the car, the motorcyclist was somehow injured. We don’t know how.
Now, it seems rather obvious that isn’t what happened, but that’s what the headline says.
How would you rewrite it? Perhaps something simple–“Motorcyclist injured near Koko Marina Center when hit by car.”
..
Perhaps I’m just too sensitive to the written words….
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What’s really telling by all the responses to something so unmeaningful to our everyday lives is that this subject has garnered 17 comments. Ian regularly reports on far greater issues that often times only gets one or two comments. I think it’s interesting that whenever there’s something negative about the SA there’s suddenly a loose ball on the field and everyone wants to pile on. It’s sport. Newspapers across the country are fun to pick on the perceived mistakes but let the day in day out efforts go mostly unnoticed. And so it goes……….
It’s simple. Sometimes the problems of the world, whether the media world or the larger world, are just too big to deal with. But pick off a small piece, and everybody has an opinion.
So the decline and death of local news is too much. But a bad headline, everyone can understand.
I’ve benefited from this again and again. My favorite example was back from the early 1990s when I was publishing my monthly newsletter about money and politics in Hawaii (one of those themes that never go out of style). The legislature misspends many millions. Yawn. But when I reported on a few thousand dollars misspent on first class air fares, THAT was NEWS! It drew outrage, although, in real terms, the amount lost by the public paled compared to other projects. But people could understand it, and it was in amounts that anyone could deal with.
At least that’s my take.
Well stated. Can’t disagree. It’s why the TV news guys always lead with a car crash somewhere on H1 or an umpteenth brush fire on Maui with a google map illustration……..
My pet peeve is how the news describes a very common type of motorcycle / vehicle crash. Not sure if this was the case here.
It’s when a vehicle makes a left turn across oncoming traffic and doesn’t see the motorcycle in the opposite lane approaching. The motorcyclist can’t swerve or stop in time and t-bones the righthand side of the vehicle.
It’s clearly the vehicle driver’s fault, but it’s often reported as “motorcycle hits car” or “motorcycle collides with car,” implying it’s the motorcyclist’s fault.
ITA about not attributing fault to the vehicle driver.
But I’m glad to see that collision made the news. This sort of crash might be, in some ways, more deserving of coverage that when a vehicle driver does something stupid, crashes, and dies as a result.
I was hit by a car while riding my bike.
I wasn’t injured by being hit by the car. But I was hurt when I landed on the road.
BTW, I was hit by a car making a left turn, that violated my right of way.
Here’s one for you (examples below). I’m not a writer, much less a reporter, but some of these articles are making me a little nutty because I feel like they are written for entertainment value. It’s also convenient that many of the articles say she was “killed”, yet don’t bother mentioning that it is unclear whether the woman died of a heart attack or of injuries sustained in the crash.
Also, is it usual to refer to someone as “killed” in an accident? I feel like “killed” refers to “murdered”.
—
Woman, 95, Killed in Flatlands Ambulance Crash While Suffering Cardiac Arrest
https://www.kctv5.com/95-year-old-woman-inside-ambulance-dies-in-brooklyn-crash/article_5a402430-5c74-5e96-9a65-e0a2f85a3bc6.html
95-Year-Old Woman Killed After Car T-Bones Ambulance in Brooklyn
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/as-seen-on/95-year-old-woman-killed-after-car-t-bones-ambulance-in-brooklyn/2980800/
A 95-year-old woman was killed and eight injured in Brooklyn after a car crashed into an ambulance
https://texasnewstoday.com/a-95-year-old-woman-was-killed-and-eight-injured-in-brooklyn-after-a-car-crashed-into-an-ambulance/208449/
Woman, 95, killed in Flatlands ambulance crash while suffering cardiac arrest
https://us.newschant.com/us-news/brooklyn/woman-95-killed-in-flatlands-ambulance-crash-while-suffering-cardiac-arrest/
95-year-old woman inside ambulance dies in Brooklyn crash
https://www.kctv5.com/95-year-old-woman-inside-ambulance-dies-in-brooklyn-crash/article_5a402430-5c74-5e96-9a65-e0a2f85a3bc6.html