On journalism and stuff
Sep. 21st, 2012 11:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gothikmausGuess what I did yesterday!
No, I didn't set stuff on fire, I was there to take pictures for the newspaper. The issue was pretty much ready and we were just about to go home, when we got a phone call telling us there was a thick column of smoke coming from the direction of the local mall. We couldn't see it from our windows, so I went down in the street and saw it. I left my colleague in the office to deal with phone calls (local police, fire brigade etc), hopped into my car and went. My dad called me and said the smoke was coming from the local power plant, but as I was getting closer I realised it couldn't be there: I'd have to turn left to go to the power plant, whereas the column of smoke was on the right. So it must have been somewhere in the "industrial district". Turns out I was right: there was a fire in a warehouse, the street officially belongs to the town nearby, but it's just a few meters away from where our town starts.
So, yeah, instead of going to the gym, I spent my evening dealing with this. Every radio station and information website was talking about it and it even ended up on national TV. But I got really mad at something I read on the website of "Corriere della Sera", which is supposed to be the most important Italian newspaper. Because the warehouse belonged to Chinese people, they instantly assumed there was something illegal going on. An article on their website said "About 10 Chinese people ran away. Surely they were trying to escape from the police because their business was not legal and probably their passports weren't valid either." Excuse me? I would run away too if the building I'm in was on fire! WTF? Someone should remind this "journalist" that, while some Chinese businesses are indeed far from legal, so are a lot of Italian ones. And that they could be sued for implying something like that. I write for a small local newspaper, but everyone is very professional and we're always extremely careful about what we write and how we write it. This is just one of the many reasons why I despise most Italian journalists.
No, I didn't set stuff on fire, I was there to take pictures for the newspaper. The issue was pretty much ready and we were just about to go home, when we got a phone call telling us there was a thick column of smoke coming from the direction of the local mall. We couldn't see it from our windows, so I went down in the street and saw it. I left my colleague in the office to deal with phone calls (local police, fire brigade etc), hopped into my car and went. My dad called me and said the smoke was coming from the local power plant, but as I was getting closer I realised it couldn't be there: I'd have to turn left to go to the power plant, whereas the column of smoke was on the right. So it must have been somewhere in the "industrial district". Turns out I was right: there was a fire in a warehouse, the street officially belongs to the town nearby, but it's just a few meters away from where our town starts.
So, yeah, instead of going to the gym, I spent my evening dealing with this. Every radio station and information website was talking about it and it even ended up on national TV. But I got really mad at something I read on the website of "Corriere della Sera", which is supposed to be the most important Italian newspaper. Because the warehouse belonged to Chinese people, they instantly assumed there was something illegal going on. An article on their website said "About 10 Chinese people ran away. Surely they were trying to escape from the police because their business was not legal and probably their passports weren't valid either." Excuse me? I would run away too if the building I'm in was on fire! WTF? Someone should remind this "journalist" that, while some Chinese businesses are indeed far from legal, so are a lot of Italian ones. And that they could be sued for implying something like that. I write for a small local newspaper, but everyone is very professional and we're always extremely careful about what we write and how we write it. This is just one of the many reasons why I despise most Italian journalists.
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no subject
Date: 2012-09-21 11:59 am (UTC)Here, that is a hallmark of sleezy tabloids, but any respected news reporter who pulled something like that would be publicly tarred and feathered, along with the newspaper he/she represented.
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Date: 2012-09-21 01:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-21 03:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-21 03:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-21 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-21 03:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-21 07:36 pm (UTC)Ugh, every time something dramatic happens, the first thought always seems to be terrorists or illegal activity. Is it too much to assume that accidents still happen?
no subject
Date: 2012-09-22 08:24 am (UTC)I wouldn't be surprised to see such a comment on certain newspapers, but apparently even the "serious" ones have lowered their standards. :(