How stupid / lazy can the News Papers be?

[puckstopper55]

I dont know about you, but when I read news I hope that the paper does its research and makes sure everything is as accurate as it can be. Different news companies usually spin news their own way, but at least get facts straight.

I was just reading this on Fox News and I looked at the picture and had a "face palm" moment. Anyone else find this super embarrassing?

[Perriwen]

Least they got part of it right. I remember in one of my high school history books, they showed a picture of F/A-18s being made. The caption was "The F-15 Tomcat is being made by General Dynamics"

And it gets better. In the game Bad Company 2, one of the characters points out a plane, referring to it as an AN-225 and being larger than an AN-124. This is a moment of redemption, for the character in his supposed lack of military intelligence. Problem is.....the aircraft he points out in the game is in fact an AN-124 the game designers call an AN-225. XD

[ulikeairplanes2]

As the resident plane nut at my previous job working for a small daily newspaper outside of Austin, I was usually deferred to regarding things like that. We liked to do a big feature on the airshow every year, so there was lots of double checking the writers' descriptions of aircraft. Was kinda tedious but some writers just don't love it like we do I guess.

[moose135]

The caption most likely came with the photo from the service. The story was originally in the Washington Post - when I did a quick search, I found the original photo there; it had the same mis-identification, and carried a photographer's credit and a Getty Images source. Most likely the photographer submitted it to Getty that way, the person checking the photo didn't have a comprehensive knowledge of USAF aircraft and assumed the photographer identified it correctly, and when it was supplied to the Post, no one there thought to check that Getty had it correct either. It's not a question of the newspaper being "stupid" or "lazy" simply an issue of how much resources can be allocated to check a relatively insignificant item on a photo caption which they didn't produce in the first place.

[puckstopper55]

Ok, understood .. on the same token, how many sets of eyes read this? The photographer, Getty, AP, News paper? Isnt it very sad that not one of them picked up on this? Even if you dont know the Raptors fighter designation, I would hope that people, especially those that are supposed to be up to date on current events, would at least know the name Raptor and associate it with our newest fighter, and realize the F-15 (again, even if they dont know the planes name) has been around for 30 or so years.

[Speedbird1]

Never mind showing the wrong picture of jet fighters, why are we selling any kind of weapons to Saudia Arabia? Is the US so desperate for money? This country is not a model democracy in the Middle East. Women are treated as second-class citizens and more. Only one religion is permitted.They have always supported UN condemnations of Israel, which is one of the few democracies in the region. How many 9-11 terrorists were from this country? Does the Obama administration think they are our friends? If God forbid the Iranians build and use nuclear weapons against Israel and our other allies, whom do we think these jet fighters would be used against? What a scary thought. Forgive me if this posting is in the wrong forum but these facts must be addressed. I think this should have been posted as "Off-Topic" since it includes political entities. Sorry.