A bunch of useless crap
Published on December 5, 2007 By MasonM In Misc
I just saw a news story on the idiot box about a truck driver that was involved in four separate accidents in Tampa yesterday resulting in the death of one person. They named the intersection where the fatality occurred and something just hit me as wrong about the story.

A bit of quick Googling for the news story both cleared it up as well as angered me a bit. The 'truck driver' wasn't a trucker at all but was a guy driving a pickup. The way the story was given on the newscast gave the distinct impression that this truck was a big rig and not a pickup. They never used the word pickup once, but instead used the words truck and truck driver.

I really despise these people. I guess they felt it would seem more sensational if they gave people the impression it was a rig by using more vague language and avoiding using the words pickup truck. A person driving a pickup is not a truck driver, they are the driver of a truck, or the driver of a pickup truck.

When people hear or read the words truck driver, they automatically envision someone at the wheel of an 18 wheeler and these asshats know that perfectly well. They didn't directly lie, they just seemed to go out of their way to use language that would lead someone to a false impression of what happened.

It's no damn wonder we have such a poor public image as the media seems to go out of their way to propagate it. And they wonder why most of us have no respect for the media.

Comments
on Dec 05, 2007
Excellent point. They do it, in my opinion, because the sensational lead will prompt angry calls from the Emily Litellas of the world who won't bother to check out "the rest of the story". If we can further clamp down on an already overregulated industry, then politicians get feathers in their caps for "making our streets safer"!

Ticks me off, too.
on Dec 05, 2007
I understand the anger. I don't understand where the idea came from that just because someone drives one of those 350 or 250 pick up trucks they suddently become a "truck" driver! I hear it all the time and they really should distinguish the two. I too would immediately vision a big rig caused the accident! You should call them and complain!
on Dec 05, 2007

Excellent point. They do it, in my opinion, because the sensational lead will prompt angry calls from the Emily Litellas of the world who won't bother to check out "the rest of the story". If we can further clamp down on an already overregulated industry, then politicians get feathers in their caps for "making our streets safer"!

Ticks me off, too.


Yep.
on Dec 05, 2007

I understand the anger. I don't understand where the idea came from that just because someone drives one of those 350 or 250 pick up trucks they suddently become a "truck" driver! I hear it all the time and they really should distinguish the two. I too would immediately vision a big rig caused the accident! You should call them and complain!


Well you know it's deliberate. Whenever they are talking about a car they always say "The driver of the car." But, just like this time, they deliberately say "Truck driver" instead of "The driver of the truck" or "The driver of the pickuo".

They know big rigs make people nervous and they cash in on that every chance they get. After all, they're job is to keep people afraid.
on Dec 05, 2007
I have also noted something since I heard it mentioned on Rush Limbaugh.  When an SUV is involved with an accident, they never mention that anyone was driving it (until paragraph 4 or 5). It is always "An SUV plowed into a Yugo, killing all occupants".  Like the SUV was driving itself.
on Dec 05, 2007
SUV - first auto-drive vehicle!
on Dec 05, 2007
SUV - first auto-drive vehicle!


With a Christine Heart.
on Dec 05, 2007
Calling the driver of a pickup a "Truck driver" is like calling the self-important airhead in front of the camera a "professional".
on Dec 05, 2007
Like the SUV was driving itself.


Amazing how that happens huh?
on Dec 05, 2007

Calling the driver of a pickup a "Truck driver" is like calling the self-important airhead in front of the camera a "professional".


Exactly.
on Dec 05, 2007
After the fact it doesn't matter anyway as the real culprit was the SUV or truck and not the driver.  The driver was just an enabler so that the truck could do it's dirty work furthering the destruction of the Earth via global warming.
on Dec 06, 2007

After the fact it doesn't matter anyway as the real culprit was the SUV or truck and not the driver.  The driver was just an enabler so that the truck could do it's dirty work furthering the destruction of the Earth via global warming.