It seem that the media in booth big and small markets doesn’t know how to cover railroads. For example when a freight train hits a car or person it gets reported as “the conductor blew the whistle and applied the break.” I though engineers did that, they only say engineer if it involves a Metra (commuter rail) or Amtrak. And they seem to have no clue about how railroads operate at all. Why is this? Thank you.
Short answer is that the only reality most reporters know anything about is their own. They all are captives of their own biases. Meeting the deadline is more important than accuracy.
Typically they simply recast what someone tells them about something. They can introduce errors in the recasting. The source is very likely either ignorant or biased.
Railroads do not help themselves with the media. There is no one around to talk to on background. The official media contacts are always somewhere else and may or may not know the facts of a specific accident or incident. Most carriers actively discourage employees other than the media contact talking to reporters, especially in the context of an accident or incident.
Don’t believe anything you see in the media about anything. Get used to it, for it will not change.
Mac McCulloch
But Mac, whether we like it or not the media have a tremendous influence on public opinion. This is not just true for railroads; it is true for everything else too.
John
Same reason most of us don’t know how our water and sewer systems work. We only get interested when something goes wrong. Or, how the brakes work on our cars. Do most people know what would happen if that big hose came off the brake booster? If even that that big round thing on the firewall is called a “brake booster”. Or that sheet metal there is called a “firewall”?
Railroads are “out of sight and out of mind” for the vast majority of us.
Probably the last knowledge they had of railroad nomenclature came from a pre-school book. How would they know any better?
I suggest that this is true for more than just railroads, and more likely you are sensitive to this when it pertains to railroads because that is where YOUR interests are.
I suppose it’s possible that rail industry insiders have a harder time communicating specifics to people not in their profession, but I suspect it’s more a case of the former than the latter.
On several threads I’ve seen the idea espoused that if only the railroads spent more time polishing their image in the eyes of Mr. & Mrs. America, then everyone would have a warmer, fuzzier attitude toward railroads. Does that mean that Mr. & Mrs. America have the warm-fuzzies for the lumber industry?
I’m waiting for Henry 6 to chime in but in the mean time I will express my own opinion.
Today’s so called journalists don’t have a clue about anything they report on and their command of the English Language and spelling is below grade school level.They seem to get almost everything wrong from railroads to airplanes and whatever else they are reporting on. I even see this on national media; incorrect information, spelling errors, etc.
Off my rant!
Only a splinter group. [:o)]
Two adages about politics in general which I think can apply to railroads as well as anything else:
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Say whatever you want about me. Just be sure you spell my name right.
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From Lyndon Johnson: Hold your friends close. And your enemies closer.
John- What are your feelings about the lumber industry?
From a young reporter on a local TV news show covering a grade crossing incident: “The conductor said that he blew the whistle, but was unable to swerve in time to avoid hitting the car.”
Do you mean to ask if I foresee railroad sidings coming to places like Home Depot to deliver lumber and other heavy, bulky building supplies? Yes, I can see it happening but I do not expect a Home Depot in a good retail location is going to move just to get it.
Also, in the late 80’s I bought a new house. It was one house in a development where all of the homes were built by the same developer and it was located in Mercer County, New Jersey. I have no idea where the building materials came from; they were delivered to the development. But they could have been shipped by train to a warehouse 5 or 10 miles away and then trucked over to the building site. Or the could have been shipped in by truck.
It does seem to me that eventually it will become increasingly rational for certain kinds of things to be shipped by rail rather than by truck.
John
I will never work in one again,that is some hard work.
John- My point was, that people- including you, I think- have said that railroads need all the positive exposure they would get from getting closer to the public, PR campaigns, advertising, being good corporate citizens and neighbors, etc,. would do so much good for railroads and the awareness of them. Well, the lumber industry has done that forever, and apparently you haven’t noticed. So, unless it’s something on a person’s individual radar, he probably doesn’t even notice.
Today’s constant “news cycle” has a lot to do with it.
Back in the day, it was “story at 11.” Today it’s story “right now.”
Never mind the lower level of competence of the “reporters,” they don’t have time to do any digging - the story goes from their computer almost direct to the public.
We see the same thing in the fire service. Some departments will do miniature fire academies for the media (and community leaders) where they explain how things work. It’s quite effective.
But fire departments have incidents on a regular basis - ie, daily, or at least weekly. A railroad may go weeks (or months in some areas) at a time without any media exposure.
Murphy,
It is true that I don’t have a lot of awareness of the lumber industry. I’m not in or remotely related to the construction industry where most lumber is used. But that is not the point. What is important here is that when anti lumber people stir up a fuss there are other people that appreciate the value of the industry and first of all will not join the anti’s and maybe even counter the bad publicity. The lumber industry does not have to make all of us its cheerleaders. What it needs is that when there is bad publicity there is a counter to that bad publicity to prevent sudden and impulsive changes in the laws under which it operates. If it can do that then its campaigns are a success.
The same principle applies to freight railroads.
You can never silence all opposition. However, you can take steps to defuse it.
John
You are still missing the point by a wide margin. The lumber industry has and does all those things that folks keep saying the railroads need to do, in order to- I don’t know- get everyone on their side? And yet, it doesn’t make any difference, as the general public- the same folks that the railroads are supposed to be woo-ing- doesn’t hear it. You are an average American. You live in a house, built with lumber. Where were you, when issues like spotted owls, Canadian tariffs, and rainforest logging are in the forefront? The answer- oblivious, because it’s outside your sphere of interest.
The same can be said about railroads and awareness. The only people who are going to notice, is those that already notice railroad things- rail fans and railroad employees. In general, preaching to the choir doesn’t educate the non-singers in your neighborhood.
Murphy,
We live in a large and diverse society. None of us, not even a large company, can bend the society to its will. I am inclined to accept Edmund Burke’s advice: “No man made a bigger mistake than the one who did nothing because he could only do a little.” Perhaps we simply have a disagreement here about philosophical perspectives.
John
Two sub-topics:
- Spelling and grammar in newspapers–I groan inwardly at what is often published because of ignorance of clear sentence structure and proper spelling, as well as ignorance of the operation of the industry described. Norm 48327 wrote of “grade level;” the knowledge necessary to attain a certain grade level is less now than it was sixty years ago; I wonder if an average high school graduate of today could have been promoted, with me, from the sixth grade sixty-five years ago .
Even the editors of newspapers make ridiculous changes in spelling. For instance, a few months ago, a certain local columnist used the word “garnisheed” when writing his column–and the word was changed to “garnished,” which has a quite different meaning. I sent the columnist a note, telling him that I would not have minded at all if my pay had been garnished when I was working, but I never was in danger of having it garnisheed; he responded, telling me that he had used the correct word.
- As to voices being heard and acted on (such as those complaining about the habitat of spotted owls), it has been said, I do not remember by whom, that a vocal 10% of the population can sway public opinion.
Did your firefighters finally stop going into burning buildings with oxygen tanks on their backs?