Media Portrayals of Events

[Dis86]

Had a bit of an interesting one this week but I'll give you the background.

About a year and a half ago I was travelling home and got stuck in a horrendous traffic jam on the A189. The A189 for those that don't know it (you know, normal people from outside the area) is basically the main arterial route in South East Northumberland. A very busy road that is, via a roundabout linked to the A19 and then the A1. It is for most of its length, including the section in question, a dual carriageway.
Unfortunately it turned out the reason for the traffic jam was a fatal accident.

What was revealed at the time in most media sources was the following:

A lorry collided with a car killing the driver of the car and badly injuring the passenger. The lorry driver sustained minor injuries.

The trial of the lorry driver has just concluded, the sequence of events that took place is as follows;

• The driver of the car was on a non-emergency call to 111 using bluetooth (ordering a prescription for her mother, the passenger).

• The passenger was doing nothing.

• The driver was instructed by the operator to pull off the road and stop somewhere safe.

• The driver stopped in the nearside lane of the dual carriageway just beyond a major junction (from the main A and E hospital in the region) to continue the call.

• Multiple vehicles had to take evasive manoeuvres in order to avoid colliding with the now stationary vehicle in an open lane of the dual carriageway.

• The lorry driver was retrieving a soft-drink from a bag in his cab. He failed to notice the stationary car in time and collided with it at 56mph.

Now here's the take from the media;

Nurse killed in crash 'would have been on Covid front line'

Tanya Forrest died after her car was hit by a lorry in 2019 when its driver reached for a drink.

www.bbc.co.uk

Trucker caused horror crash that killed nurse as he grabbed soft drink from bag

Lorry driver Kenneth Wilson killed nurse Tanya Forrest when he ploughed into her car on the A189, near Cramlington, Northumberland, while getting a can of fizzy drink out of his bag

www.mirror.co.uk

Lorry driver jailed for killing nurse while getting drink from his bag | ITV News

Kenneth Wilson, 55, took his eyes off the road and crashed his 18-tonne truck into a car on the Spine Road near Cramlington. | ITV News Tyne Tees

www.itv.com

MSN

www.msn.com

Is it just me or is the reporting a little...one directional? Now don't get me wrong, I agree the driver of the lorry was ultimately at fault, he shouldn't have taken his eyes off the road especially not for what is really quite a long time, but it's curious how they omit or gloss over a major point - the stationary vehicle in the open lane of a busy dual carriageway. The vehicle that had absolutely no need to be there as literally 100m up the road there is a parking layby which is well sign-posted for hundreds of metres. The call wasn't urgent and ultimately could have been carried out by the passenger.

Regional news sources have a very different approach and are more even with their reporting, actually mentioning the dangerous actions of the victim;

Lorry driver jailed for killing nurse by taking eyes off road to get can of coke

Tanya Forrest was killed and her mum seriously injured when she stopped on the A189 in Cramlington and delivery driver Kenneth Wilson didn't see her car as he wasn't looking

www.chroniclelive.co.uk

Delivery driver who killed nurse in horror smash on A189 is jailed

A delivery driver who killed a nurse in a horror smash when he took his eyes off the road for "six seconds" to reach for a can of Coke has been jailed.

www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk

"She pulled over on dual carriageway in the middle of the nearside lane, which prosecutor Sue Hirst accepted was not an appropriate place to stop, but said other drivers should have been ready and able to take evasive action, as some did."

"Prosecutor Sue Hirst said: "The prosecution accept this was not an appropriate place for her to have stopped, it would have been safer if she had continued until she could pull off or pull into a layby.""

So why such a different take from the larger, more mainstream outlets? Why no real mention of the dangerous actions that the victim took? Surely these are massively pertinent to the outcome? What I also find very interesting is the sentence the lorry driver received vs this guy:

Ann and Lawrence Nickerson deaths: Newcastle driver jailed

Ann and Lawrence Nickerson died after being hit by a car in Newcastle in 2019.

www.bbc.co.uk

Lorry driver, stayed at the scene, has shown massive remorse, killed one and injured another. Victim stopped in dangerous place unnecessarily. 23 months.

Hit-and-run driver killed 2 pedestrians through no fault of their own. 24 months.

​

 

[Chuk_Chuk]

So why such a different take from the larger, more mainstream outlets? Why no real mention of the dangerous actions that the victim took? Surely these are massively pertinent to the outcome?

Seems like they are trying to simplfy the case so that there is a clear good guy and a bad guy. Notice how all the articles you have linked refer to her as a nurse even though that has nothing to do with the case, from your description of events this was a personal journey.

 

[Richie]

The media like putting things like nurse or police officer or firefighter or teacher etc, as a descriptive of a person as if this puts a halo above the head of said person.

Newsflash - being employed in one of these roles does not stop you being a **** (I realise that will be starred out)

 

[Chris Wilson]

To reply without me wanting to be seen to re try a case I have no direct knowledge of, once again we have reporting that is biased and overly dramatised.

But just reporting the trial result without comment doesn't draw the readers eye the same as adding needless embellishment.

 

[chroniclard]

How is this a thread, media has been doing this since it's inception.

 

[Haggisman]

The reporting may be a little one sided, but to be honest, the punishments seem fair.

He was punished for killing someone through careless driving (yes in this case she stopped unnecessarily for a trivial reason, but equally there could have been a legitimate reason for a vehicle to be stopped in that lane, e.g. driver suffering a medical emergency, a breakdown, an obstruction/stationary traffic ahead, etc.).

She was punished for stopping in a completely stupid place

Lorry driver, stayed at the scene, has shown massive remorse, killed one and injured another. Victim stopped in dangerous place unnecessarily. 23 months.

Hit-and-run driver killed 2 pedestrians through no fault of their own. 24 months.​

He's a professional driver, so I'm afraid that means he is held to higher standards (although I do agree the hit-and-run driver should have had a harsher punishment).

 

[jpaul]

The post sentencing report doesn't seem to clarify how she was using the phone(implying she was holding it), and if it was hands free why it was suggested she pulled over, then,
how many cars circumnavigated the stopping(?)/stopped car, and what their testimony was for the timing of events...

so, as ever, reporting of details is pretty unsatisfactory to determine how much sympathy the lorry driver deserves .... and the media just assumes./ villainises him.

 

[Dis86]

The post sentencing report doesn't seem to clarify how she was using the phone(implying she was holding it), and if it was hands free why it was suggested she pulled over, then,
how many cars circumnavigated the stopping(?)/stopped car, and what their testimony was for the timing of events...

so, as ever, reporting of details is pretty unsatisfactory to determine how much sympathy the lorry driver deserves .... and the media just assumes./ villainises him.

At least 6 cars had to evade her. I believe she was using a Bluetooth headset. She was stationary in the lane for over a minute.

 

[Fubsy]

Not entirely on topic, but...

I worry about this when I sneeze when driving. Wtf can I do about it if someone decides to do something silly when fate has me scrunch up my eyes and I fumble for a tissue?

 

[rhobbyh]

How did she pass her test? She presumably thought it was fine to just pull up on the inside lane of a busy dual carriageway to make a phone call. I have bit of sympathy for the trucker - even if he'd been paying 100% attention and on the top of his game the best thing he could have done was veer out of its path and potentially kill someone else, she has caused it and for that not to be reported accurately is just atrocious journalism.

"Journalism" is atrocious these days, the majority of articles use quotes from random's on twitter, as it that means anything to anyone, but it is a lot easier and you don't have to put any actual work into it.

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

Are we surprised that different media entities portray the same events in certain and very different ways depending on the angle they want to lean into, the base they're trying to appease/inflame, and a number of other measures which we might have views on? Really? That's the hot take?

Or is this that you think the (dead) woman is to blame and the (male) truck driver is getting an overly hard time? If not, what actually is your point here @Dis86 ?

e: oh, I see what your point might be:

So why such a different take from the larger, more mainstream outlets?

Gotcha :/

 

[jpaul]

It's pretty much one syndicated news report that appears in all the papers .(as if often the case)

At least 6 cars had to evade her. I believe she was using a Bluetooth headset. She was stationary in the lane for over a minute.

if they said that in the report, my lorry driver sympathy would be reduced .

I worry about this when I sneeze when driving

I think you just gave evidence that you know you can have periods of distraction .. so having tissues ready to use might be advised (to clean up windscreen/hand if necessary)

 

[Dis86]

Are we surprised that different media entities portray the same events in certain and very different ways depending on the angle they want to lean into, the base they're trying to appease/inflame, and a number of other measures which we might have views on? Really? That's the hot take?

Or is this that you think the (dead) woman is to blame and the (male) truck driver is getting an overly hard time? If not, what actually is your point here @Dis86 ?

e: oh, I see what your point might be:



Gotcha :/

The point is why is the focus from the larger outlets on a very one directional take? There's limited portrayal of the actual facts and they seem more interested in the fact that she would have been a covid hero or something.
Why not report, like the smaller rags, the actual events.
This allows people to form their own opinions rather than being force fed someone else's.
As someone above said, it's like the maximum effort was made to demonise the lorry driver even though there was blame on both sides leading to an utterly tragic but entirely avoidable outcome.

 

[Fubsy]

I think you just gave evidence that you know you can have periods of distraction .. so having tissues ready to use might be advised (to clean up windscreen/hand if necessary)

We all have the capability to sneeze while driving. I see people do it while I drive.

Maybe, we should all give up our licenses as we are humans, capable of distraction and mistakes.

This story had a series of events that, if not done/done differently, could have avoided an accident. There also could have been any endless amount of random things happen to cause a different event of the same outcome.

What I'm saying is, roads are dangerous.

 

[The Funktopus]

I used to love blasting up and down the A19 on my way to and from South Shields during my cadetship days. Admittedly staying on the A1M probably would have been faster, but I could never resist that slip road at Dishforth.

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

The point is why is the focus from the larger outlets on a very one directional take? There's limited portrayal of the actual facts and they seem more interested in the fact that she would have been a covid hero or something.
Why not report, like the smaller rags, the actual events.
This allows people to form their own opinions rather than being force fed someone else's.
As someone above said, it's like the maximum effort was made to demonise the lorry driver even though there was blame on both sides leading to an utterly tragic but entirely avoidable outcome.

We're getting into circular discourse here but because different media entities portray the same events in certain and very different ways depending on the angle they want to lean into, the base they're trying to appease/inflame, and a number of other measures which we might have views on. That's what editorial direction does to an organisation and while some try to play it straight-ish (notably the AP, arguably the BBC, absolutely not the Daily Mail, Telegraph, probably The Guardian etc) I don't think the real source of truth is to ignore the bigs and double down on the smaller outlets because, and this is also circular, the smaller outlets tend to be small for a reason and themselves want to be big but can't be because they're amateur hour and can't report evenly even if they try to.

The onus is on the reader or observer to make their own decision on what they are consuming.

e:

even though there was blame on both sides leading to an utterly tragic but entirely avoidable outcome.

Yes, but not equal blame which is why one person is dead and the other went to jail. This appears to be quite significant and had nothing to do with how things were reported.

 

[Dis86]

We're getting into circular discourse here but because different media entities portray the same events in certain and very different ways depending on the angle they want to lean into, the base they're trying to appease/inflame, and a number of other measures which we might have views on. That's what editorial direction does to an organisation and while some try to play it straight-ish (notably the AP, arguably the BBC, absolutely not the Daily Mail, Telegraph, probably The Guardian etc) I don't think the real source of truth is to ignore the bigs and double down on the smaller outlets because, and this is also circular, the smaller outlets tend to be small for a reason and themselves want to be big but can't be because they're amateur hour and can't report evenly even if they try to.

The onus is on the reader or observer to make their own decision on what they are consuming.

Yes but the point is that the readers are unknowingly being provided with only partial facts and skewed ones at that. This does not allow the reader to make an accurate and informed decision.
I was only able to do this because I knew of the event and knew that what was being portrayed was not wholly accurate. As I've pointed out, the more 'amateur' outlets give a more factual and less embellished account of the events.

Or are you denying the fact that stopping in an active lane of traffic to make a phonecall was a significant contributor to the event?

 

[Rroff]

Sadly always been this way - I can't remember what the incident was now but my sister witnessed something many years ago and gave comments to a press person and was upset when they only put a heavily edited version of what she said in the article to fit one side of the story.

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

Yes but the point is that the readers are unknowingly being provided with only partial facts and skewed ones at that. This does not allow the reader to make an accurate and informed decision.
I was only able to do this because I knew of the event and knew that what was being portrayed was not wholly accurate. As I've pointed out, the more 'amateur' outlets give a more factual and less embellished account of the events.

Or are you denying the fact that stopping in an active lane of traffic to make a phonecall was a significant contributor to the event?

I wasn't on the jury and nor, I hope, were you. What is your point here?

 

[Dis86]

I wasn't on the jury and nor, I hope, were you. What is your point here?

I'll make it clear. The larger media outlets have provided a biased description of what happened. This description does not allow the reader to form an informed opinion of events.