Most misleading headline ever?

[AndrewE]

Apparently from the Croydon Advertiser, posted: January 09, 2016

http://www.croydonadvertiser.co.uk/t...ail/story.html shows

All train lines between Croydon and Brighton to be closed after high winds delay bridge work

sounds to me as though something safety-critical didn't get done...
However it then goes on to say that because scheduled work couldn't be done (because of high winds) when another blockade was on a further opportunity will have to be sought, but heavens knows when that can be achieved as all 4 lines have to be closed...

 

[najaB]

Most misleading headline ever?

Nope. I've seen worse.

 

[backontrack]

Do you ever see headlines about Jeremy Corbyn?

 

[scotsman]

Nope. Can't see where that's misleading.

 

[AndrewE]

Nope. Can't see where that's misleading.

You must speak a different sort of English to me then.
It doesn't say "will have to be closed [briefly] again some time in the future." To me it says, well, what it says.
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Do you ever see headlines about Jeremy Corbyn?

perhaps I should have added "in a railway context."

 

[najaB]

You must speak a different sort of English to me then.
It doesn't say "will have to be closed [briefly] again some time in the future." To me it says, well, what it says.

The only thing that is slightly misleading is 'to be' rather than 'will be'. Even without that slight change it is completely factual.

 

[backontrack]

In any case, this was a misleading thread title. Is this the 'most misleading thread title ever'? :P

 

[scotsman]

You must speak a different sort of English to me then.
It doesn't say "will have to be closed [briefly] again some time in the future." To me it says, well, what it says.

Perhaps it's my journalism training, but I fear you're talking rubbish.

 

[AndrewE]

In any case, this was a misleading thread title. Is this the 'most misleading thread title ever'? :P

I note that no-one has offered a more misleading contender yet though (or any other examples they remember) even though the media are notoriously inept at distinguishing between locos & trains/Network Rail & TOCs & ROSCOs etc...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Perhaps it's my journalism training, but I fear you're talking rubbish.

And I thought journalists had a special training or aptitude for distilling what they found out into absolutely concise precise prose... but hang on, maybe that is what scientists do.

 

[backontrack]

I saw one about ScotRail recently that had a picture of an EMT Meridian on it. These things happen all the time.

 

[scotsman]

And I thought journalists had a special training or aptitude for distilling what they found out into absolutely concise precise prose... but hang on, maybe that is what scientists do.

A journalist wrote an article about trains, stating that engineering work will have to be carried out at a later date due to the poor weather cancelling the current works. In other news, a trainspotter got upset because the journalist made a tiny error that 99% of the population would also have made. No one died.

I'd like to think that I distilled this whole thread into a piece of 'concise, precise prose'.

 

[AndrewE]

The only thing that is slightly misleading is 'to be' rather than 'will be'. Even without that slight change it is completely factual.

in most people's useage to be' and 'will be' are the same. Still sounds final to me.

 

[najaB]

in most people's useage to be' and 'will be' are the same. Still sounds final to me.

Oh, I get where you're coming from. The difference is very subtle.

 

[Surreytraveller]

And surely its 'railway lines', not 'train lines'. Journalists have a poor standard of English these days.

 

[AndrewE]

A journalist wrote an article about trains, stating that engineering work will have to be carried out at a later date due to the poor weather cancelling the current works. In other news, a trainspotter got upset because the journalist made a tiny error that 99% of the population would also have made. No one died.

I'd like to think that I distilled this whole thread into a piece of 'concise, precise prose'.

No, the headine stated that the line was to be closed, full stop. I thought editors (experienced senior staff) were there to ensure that if the underling can't get it right, at least what the public sees is accurate and informative.

Which trainspotter? I did 30+ years on BR and a successor, all the way through with the specific requirement of ensuring that what I did was complete (re-drawing traincrew diagrams for engineering work) and accurate and impossible to misinterpret (working with civils, S&T, operating and other departments.) I've also travelled widely abroad and seen how rolling stock is cascaded and adapted if necessary to allow steady service improvements, noting that they don't just sit on their hands saying nothng can be done until someone gifts them a fleet of shiny new stock.

 

[scotsman]

No, the headine stated that the line was to be closed, full stop. I thought editors (experienced senior staff) were there to ensure that if the underling can't get it right, at least what the public sees is accurate and informative.

Which trainspotter? I did 30+ years on BR and a successor, all the way through with the specific requirement of ensuring that what I did was complete (re-drawing traincrew diagrams for engineering work) and accurate and impossible to misinterpret (working with civils, S&T, operating and other departments.) I've also travelled widely abroad and seen how rolling stock is cascaded and adapted if necessary to allow steady service improvements, noting that they don't just sit on their hands saying nothng can be done until someone gifts them a fleet of shiny new stock.

Yeah, it is going to be closed. For a short period of time. Headlines can't convey the full story, it's expected that their readers would be able to reasonably contextualise it. And editors aren't there to read it, sub-editors are - generally overworked sods hundreds of miles away from whichever 'local' paper is printing it. See how easy it is to generalise?

Anyway, I work for a TOC...

 

[AndrewE]

I would be interested to see your immediate reaction if you were told or read that your depot was to be closed.

I was criticising the headline, which could have easily have said "Railway between Croydon and Brighton to be closed again after bridge work delayed." That's better and 13 words instead of 16, and I haven't tried very hard or for very long. And it's not what I have been trained to do either.

and a p.s. A friend's reaction just received: "the headline seems to imply that the lines are to be closed imminently and indefinitely" which is how I read it too.

 

[Busaholic]

How would anyone rate this that appeared on the screens at Victoria Station approx 24 hours after the Hatfield train crash:

''Breaking news - Hatfield train crash not caused by terrorism''

Absolutely factual, of course. What it fails to say is that no-one outside the offices of Railtrack and their spin doctors had ever thought it was terrorist action rather than incompetent maintenance.