I hate when reporters do this! About This Page:

[Caldercup]

I just read the recent news reports about the smoke on the monorail system last week.

It turns out that a circuit board in one of the stations fried and caused the smoke. No guests were ever in any danger and the only monorail on the tracks at the time was safely pulled back into a nearby station and the guests were let off.

But, the reporter included this little tidbit from a conversation with a guest:

"Rodriguez told News 13 when her family rode the monorail Tuesday, everything was fine. But she wonders if the entire system needs to be replaced.

"The repairs haven’t been up to date because it’s used quite a bit,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said even though no one was hurt, with park goers paying hundreds “everything should be working efficiently for sure.”

(excerpted from this article: Smoke Halts Disney Monorails - Central Florida News 13)

I find this type of reporting so unprofessional -- this is pure speculation on the part of someone who's not remotely connected to the situation (other than as a guest) or aware of the facts on maintenance, repair, replacement, uptime, etc.

From a journalism perspective, this guest could have been asked about their fear, their experience, their distress, but it's bad form to have quoted them in a news source making that kind of statement.

How would this guest know the repair schedule of the monorail system -- is she aware of the incredible care and maintenance that goes in to keeping it up and running at the top of its game? (And she's not meant to -- I don't blame her off-the-cuff comment, I blame the journalist reporting it.) A journalist who reports something as inflammatory as "The repairs haven’t been up to date because it’s used quite a bit” should get their hands slapped.

That's not news! That's trying to make a buck.

Yuck!
Eileen

[coffeechef]

my feeling exactly. I hate this kind of sensationalism that has become the norm of reporting the news. Not just at Disney but for everything. Sadly though it does seem to be about the news selling a story rather than telling the story.

[lazanya]

I couldn't agree with you more Eileen!

[fluttercat]

The reports coming out down there are getting a bit out of hand. I'm still trying to figure out who's bright idea it was to turn that poor teen's death (by natural causes) into news. That should have been left alone. The world doesn't have any need to know about that. Seems like the journalists don't have enough crime to report on in Orlando ***rolling eyes***

[Sandra Bostwick]

Great thread! That burns me up too! It is like a reporter picks a random person from the crowd and writes their comment as if it were fact.

[carters_mom]

Completely Ridiculous

[Timothy Mouse]

One of the reasons why I don't work in the news business any more.

[Shell_of_the_South]

That's just funny - how random could that be? This reporter couldn't find anyone even remotely affiliated with Disney to interview?

[skateycat]

the journalist in me agrees with you, eileen. i get incensed more often than not and also am glad i made a change in careers!

[cajunlace]

I couldn't agree more with all the responses.

[tndisneyfam]

I totally agree. That's absolutely ridiculous!! If you can't report anything truthful then don't!!

[eff051102]

I so agree with you Eileen! Seems the journalist missed that lesson when they
were teaching Journalism 101. I remember that class but that's just the old
Journalist in me. I'm glad I moved on even if my parents hate that I'm not
using my degree.

[scottjs]

I al;so hate that more and more of our local news seems to be disappearing. I went past a car wreck a few months ago. Very bad--I am sure people were killed. And there was nothing in the news. Some movie star dies and the world goes crazy. Something important happens and who cares?? Where is Walter Cronkite when we need him? Sorry if this is off topic--but I think its related.

[Caldercup]

Personally, I think it's related, Scott -- in that reporting the news doesn't seem to be the *point* anymore. It's more like they are trying to generate the news, trying to feed some insatiable desire for gossip that I just can't fathom.

As it relates to Disney, it does seem that the local news in Orlando (which, I think this report came from) has a weird tie-in there -- they want to report on all things Disney because it's kind of the "meat and potatoes" of the local industry, but they have an odd way of going about it. It's more sensationalism than actual news and it could wind up hurting the local population, including the percentage of their viewing public who earn their living on or at Disney properties.

<<shaking my head>>
Eileen

[Dave Marx]

Even news reportage goes thorough cycles. The journalistic ethics we learned in school were a direct reaction to the kind of journalism that thrived during the late 19th and early 20th century - the time of Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. There was huge competition in those days - sometimes dozens of newspapers in major cities, and there was a whole lot of shouting for attention (so to speak).

We're back in a similar time, with bloggers, cable news, TV news, "citizen" reporters uploading eyewitness photos/videos onto YouTube... Lots of voices, lots of noise, and lots of folks trying to find a story and angle that will draw eyeballs for a few minutes. Meantime, print newspapers are dying, and many other news (and pseudo-news) outlets aren't making enough money to survive - folks are not currently willing to pay for quality news coverage. Free circuses can be fun.

Today, if a reporter or editor pauses five minutes to fact check, someone else will have broken an un-checked version of the story on their web page and leave you in the dust. It's hard times. I do have faith it'll shake out sometime down the line. Eventually the public does realize it's missing substance and credible information (consider this discussion!), and will start looking for better sources.

All this is one of the main reasons we don't try to play the news scoop game here at PassPorter. Most real Disney news is carefully controlled by Disney. It's hardly worth striving to be the first to post the press release - everyone will have it at around the same time. Altogether, on most days it amounts to a lot of scrambling around and next to nothing accomplished. Meantime, since many sites do not identify the source as a press release, folks come to these message boards and give those sites credit for the news (as if they did something besides copy and paste).

I'm happy to read, think, and analyze once the story bounces in my direction, but Scoop Sanderson I'm not.

Take this story for example. You've got a reporter sent out on a non-story. "A puff of smoke, a burnt circuit board. Big deal." What's left to do but scour the crowd for a juicy sound bite? If the reporter comes back empty-handed it doesn't help the career or the newspaper. Folks in Orlando like reading criticism of Disney - the golden goose they love to hate - so when the reporter finds some smoldering resentment... bingo! The story behind the story is as old as the hills.