In his Feb 2010 column in TRAINS, D Phillips vents his frustration (that many of us share) regarding careless and ignorant media coverage of the rail sector. Unfortunately, he is guilty of a bit of sloppiness in his commentary. From the second-to-last paragraph:
“Huh? Has no one ever heard about intermodalism, the major growth engine of railroading? It’s quite a simple thing: Put truck trailers or ocean-going containers on flatcars, notch out the throttle and go…”
Actually, it’s not quite that simple, but to my point: Has intermodal been a growth engine? Sure. But shipping “truck trailers” has hardly been leading the charge within the intermodal segment. Trailer volumes have been generally declining for years and it’s not expected to come back. The reason as to why illustrates his second error: Containers aren’t just “ocean-going;” Domestic containerization is leading (and will continue to lead) intermodal growth in North America.
I have not read the column but the quote is close enough to get the idea across. Having it in a column about ignorant media coverage magnifies the statement though.
Probably would have been safer to have edited the the statement to read–“…It’s quite a simple thing: Put containers and truck trailers on flatcars, …”
It’s rare to see someone “In the Media” criticize “The Media”. But it’s refreshing.
Real progress will be made when people such as Phillips realize that “Media Ignorance” goes far beyond the subject of railroading.
That’s all from me on this topic. I could get this locked so fast it would make your head spin. I could also get myself tossed off the board if I posted any more on this subject. So I’ve said my piece and now I’ll just shut up about this.
Until recently no one in the media really cared about the railroads. Increased public spending will mean some improvement in media coverage of railroads. Will it be perfect? Noooooo.
Well, sure. But, I think you are nit-picking. Most people, even railfans, still think of a highway truck as a “tractor-trailer” not a “tractor-container-chassis”, so to refer to a domestic truckload traffic as “truck trailers” probably creates more understanding with more readers than any other term without creating needless commentary or confusion.
In fairness to the media - most reporters haven’t a clue about most things they write about.
Obviously the sports folks have to understand sports, although the football sports reporter may not have a clue about lacross. Likewise, you’d expect the reporter on the police beat to understand the lingo and operations of the cops. If they happen to catch an assignment to cover a quilting bee, well…
But I think you’ll find that most reporters spend part of their time doing a report just learning about what it is they’re reporting. From that they try to pick out a few salient points for their piece and hope it conveys what needs to be said.
Fire departments have been known to run “media academies” to teach their local news folks about fire department operations. Sometimes that’s what’s needed in many subject areas.
I think we can all forgive the mainstream media for its ignorance of railroading as long as there are full-time rail journalists and rail magazines who routinely publish blatant errors of their own.
Why should we “forgive” any journalist for inaccurate reporting? Isn’t accuracy in the job description?
People in the railroad business had a high regard for the accuracy of Phillips’ reporting when he was with the Washington Post and International Herald Tribune. With that I think he is on solid ground when criticizing the some of the reporting on the subject of railroads in mainstream media.
I agree Don is one of the better guys in the business, and I agree he has sound reason to criticize the mainstream media for not doing a better job. But the magazine in which Don’s piece appears, and other magazines in the rail field, frequently print errors in their maps, stories, and photo captions which demonstrate a lack of what you refer to as “accuracy in the job description.”
We, the consumers of media have an obligation to understand what it is we are consuming, just as with any product or service we buy. Don’t be as lazy a consumer as some media is at being a provider! You can use the instances where you have quite a bit of knowledge in a subject area to “calibrate” your opinion if the trustworthiness of that media outlet, reporter, etc, when they report in that area. My trust of Trains Magazine is very high. They sometimes get opinion tangled up in their news reporting, particularly w.r.t. Amtrak (I expect the columns and articles to have a point of view, but not the news…), but overall, they are about the best there is.
Due to the Media coverage I think a great opportunity was pasted here. I am surprised Buffet didn’t specifiably mention intermodalism in his interviews. Because of this the public as a whole, is not aware of rail transportation as a big hauler of the goods in their home; they still think boxcars and coal. There was a lot of discussion about how Buffet is going green if he is investing in a company that generates half their revenue from coal. They are not aware that coal will eventually drop off and the fact BNSF and it’s industry peers are investing in intermodal and that was Buffet’s whole reason for the buy up, which the media did not touch on at all. I am surprised that there were no 60 minutes or Dateline segments on this after the fact. Honestly I just think the journalist just thought that “why would anyone care about this story”. This is the exact reaction I got from the college students that were watching this story break in the eatery. I here “who cares about a railroad, their going out of business anyway”. “who cares they don’t do anything important”. Then I heard that a few say “why would he buy a railroad?”, but they said it in a tone of interest. Unfortunately, the media did not fully explain this. I agree there needs to be a re-education of America on the Rail Industry like what was mentioned earlier about firefighters going around speaking about their jobs and importance. I look forward to reading Don Phillips article every month, and I really enjoyed it this month.
When I read the first few comments on Phillips’ column, I thought the column must be a real disaster. Then I saw old hands’ comments, like oltmannd’s and began to wonder if they had read the same magazine. Finally I read the article this morning. Yes, Phillips title suggests criticism of the media ignorance but the much of the article talks about the CNBC interview where Buffett’s being a railfan came out along with his motivations in the BNSF purchase. If we wonder why the media doesn’t know much about the rails, it is probably a sign that aside from a few NS and CSX TV commercials, there is little out there for the public to identify the rails as being anything more than an irrelevant anachronism.
I guess some folks have such a strong agenda that they miss the forest for the trees.
Don is the only “mainstream media” journalist that the top tier of the railroad industry management respects and likes. The WSJ reporters get access – somewhat less than Don – because of who they work for more than who they are or what they know. Don gets his access because he gets it right.
There’s a lot of carping about Don from some in the railfan community, but in the railroad industry community, he’s liked, respected, and appreciated. I guess that fact will probably make some in the railfan community carp about Don even more, because now it makes him a shill in their eyes. There’s no pleasing some in the railfan community.
As for the original comment about Don’s sentence about intermodal, I don’t know anyone in the rail industry who would take issue with it or see it as wrong. I didn’t. Really, if we are to require everyone who writes everything to be scrupulously black-and-white about a very grey industry, all articles will never be completed or published because they will never be sufficiently perfect.
I agree with the person who thought that the accusation was nit-picking. How many people are going to realize that a domestic container on a chassis is not a trailer? It follows a truck tractor, just like any other trailer–or a Roadrailer. If it walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, and looks like a duck…
To most of the public RRs trains and equipment are as exiting as doorknobs. A RR only comes into a persons mind when they are held up at a crossing or there is derailment in the news.
The media coverage thru WSJ and Bloomberg was accurate.
I am not sure Buffett is a “railfan” (foamer) vs a railfan (economic fan of railroad industry). Don Phillips seemed to think that Buffett is a foamer.
BTW did anyone see the big color photo of BNSF intermodal at Cajon in yesterday’s WSJ? It accompanied an article in which commodities and transportation were viewed as leading indicators or escape from recession. Let’s hope so. I have had enough of this one.
I’ll agree that Buffett probably isn’t a railfan in the mold of the late Walter Rich of the NYS&W, but his statement seems to color him as something more than an investor who cares little of the nature of the industry, but is only interested in what it will return on his investment.
I think the whole thing speaks to just how far apart the ‘producing’ and ‘shipping’ side of our society has become more than any inherent “ignorance” on the part of journalism per se. I grew up with a large grain mill/elevator right in our backyard. The CN doubletrack went right by the dang thing and we had to cross a foot bridge to get to our school—which just so happened to overlook that very mill and tracks. Most of us probably have been in one way or another influenced by the neighbouring area we grew up in. How many people today grow up anywhere near these areas? Not very many I bet—[sigh]