"Albert-Fish" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<
[email protected]>...
> "Josh Towers" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
>
news:[email protected]...
> >
> > Albert-Fish <
[email protected]> wrote in message
> >
news:[email protected]...
> > >
> > > if I was the teletext copy writer I would construct the sentence thus:
> > >
> > > a cyclist and a vehicle were involved in a collision at the junction of ..
> > >
> >
> > That would be two vehicles then.
> >
>
> no, that would be a fairer way of reporting the incedent if the need is there to idetifiy the
> participants.
>
> another example ?
>
> a man died and his passenger was seriously injured when the rider lost control of his high powered
> sports motorcycle.
>
> that suggests to the non biker that the biker was speeding. why ? well it's a high powered sports
> bike and the rider lost control.
>
> in the above case the bike was going at less than 40 mph in a 60 and skidded on diesel that had
> spilled from /another/ stupid truck drivers diesel tank after the fool forgot to replace the
> filler cap.
>
> a fact lost on the 'journalist' at teletext.
>
>
>
>
> Albert
From personal experience when recounting my own near death experience it is remarkable how different
presentations of the same facts can provoke different reactions. When I started my tale with "one
day I was out on my motorbike..." I had immediately lost the sympathy of the audience (unless they
were bikers). Motorbikes are fast and dangerous and ridden recklessly I could hear them think. The
subsequent disclosure of the other party being a drunk driver would be ameliorated by the motorbike
detail, maybe he was just over the limit, there but for the grace of god etc. But when I started "I
was hit head-on by a drunk driver who was on my side of the road..." I was awash in sympathy. The
subsequent disclosure of the motorbike detail would illicit shocked expressions and painful winces
as they imagined how unprotected I would have been. Maybe the journalists need to be given first
hand experience of these sort of situations.
M
"Like a pig towing a cartload of sausages - I draw my own conclusions" Arch Drude