Dear FoxNews Online editor,
On your website today I read your synopsis
British Marine Rugby Tackles Homicide Bomber in Afghanistan
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,457364,00.html
of a story in the Daily Mail (UK)
Hero Royal Marine saved 130 soldiers by rugby tackling suicide bomber
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1089227/Hero-Royal-Marine-saved-130-soldiers-rugby-tackling-suicide-bomber.html#
This appeared on your website November 25.
I suggest that you do some training with your story editors. In this
case your synopsis claimed to be quoting the Daily Mail's story that the
suicide bomber transported 154 pounds of explosives and it continued,
"Explosives experts told The Mail that had the bomb gone off it would
have destroyed everything within a 590-foot radius." That would be a
flat-out lie.
In fact, the Daily Mail reported that there were 70 kilograms of
explosives and they said the destruction radius would have been 180
meters. I'm sure the experts gave that information to the Daily Mail in
terms of kilograms and meters and obviously the Daily Mail was
professional enough to report the information as given.
The story editor that did this needs to have his or her calculator taken
away and smashed flat. As a replacement, hand him or her a couple 500 mL
bottles of water and tell them that they collectively contain a kilogram
of water. Tell them to imagine lifting 140 of those half-liter bottles.
Have them watch old tapes of the last Olympic Games broadcast in the
U.S. for us Americans to enjoy. Have them take notes on the 100 m races.
Even without a calculator, they can realize that 180 m is nearly twice
that distance.
If your staff cannot deal with metric units, get new staff members. Most
Americans can handle them well enough to understand news articles that
use them. At least get staff members who don't feel obliged to
"translate" English stories for Americans to read. It's time for
innumerate journalists to take their personal biases out of stories they
edit and to stop misquoting figures that are given to them.
James R. Frysinger
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(H) 931.657.3107
(C) 931.212.0267
