Sloppy and lazy journalism

When our elder son was in the Royal Marines and about to go off to Iraq in 2003, he made us promise that we would not under any circumstances speak to the media if anything happened to him. Happily he returned home unscathed.

Press regulation in the UK is very weak. Only the very wealthy can afford to sue. Press coverage is aimed at maximising profit and so long as the mass of the population want to read sensational rubbish that is what they will get. It's a clear weakness of our educational system that it fails to train people in critical thinking and this is exploited by the worst elements of the press.

Oh chocolatepudding, how absolutely dreadful, one wonders at the mindset of the journalist and editor who decided that your private tragedy was front page news. So sorry .

This may be distressing for some readers but it is true.

Back in the 1970s our DD died suddenly age 7 months a few days before Christmas when we were staying with my parents. I will never forget the kindness of the ambulance crew, my parents GP and the coroner who were so gentle with us.
A few days later we had her funeral service and we returned to my PILs home. I picked up the local weekly rag - Christmas edition - and there on the front page was a 3 inch long column with the headline Baby Found Dead in Cot. None of us had been contacted by anyone from the rag but what was printed was not TRUE. I won't go into details but I was there and can still remember what actually happened.

I have hated journalists ever since and I never believe the words in the press or media - there may be a little bit of truth but I doubt it. If I could get my hands on the idiot that wrote the piece and the editor....I had better not say what I would do to them.

Lots of very well-researched and presented pieces written by many journalists. What the OP is surely highlighting is the appalling garbage written solely to appeal to their semi-literate readers by certain papers.

Many headlines that appear in our local newspaper seem to be lifted from people’s Facebook or Twitter accounts.
No report to bulk it out.
I wonder if their journalists leave their desks or just press buttons on a laptop/iPad/iPhone.

The journalists who interview politicians have to be fairly soft on then or they won't be given another interview. The local radio journalists who spoke to Liz Truss could be more hard hitting because they had nothing to lose.
I suppose with the "human interest " stories, none of the neighbours are going to say that they always thought he was a wrong un.

It all about sensational journalism , unfortunately the majority of the public only read the headline so you have to keep it punchy and the story needs to keep their attention for no longer than a minute . Do you still buy a newspaper? Or just read online? If you like me it is online, I haven't read a daily paper for about 5 years. I used purchase one daily before that even on holidays.

I think, with the very odd exception, journalism in the U.K. is pretty poor.