I Wish Journalists Would Do Their Homework

[Jcarlton]

They get a bunch wrong in this.  The train is not run by the conductor, who is the train manager and collects tickets, opens and shuts the doors and clears the train for departure.  The train is operated by the drive, also called the train operator, motorman or engineer, but never a conductor.  It's a Pantograph, not a pantograph. And the machine they showed was a ballast  tamper, not a ballast cleaner. And I think both machines preadate the Shinkansen by a couple of decades at least.:

http://www.tsunagujapan.com/3-secrets-behind-the-wonders-of-the-shinkansen-japanese-bullet-train/
 

[kvp]

Funniest thing is they call the bogies flatcars...  :)  :)  :)

Every six months, the motor and the flatcar attached to the wheels are disassembled.

[railsquid]

It's a Pantograph, not a pantograph.

 

Why?

 

I can't find out who's behind that site, but it looks like it's written by "ambassadors", not "real" journalists.

[katoftw]

I also looks like it is written by someone who does not speak/read/write english as their first langauge.

[Davo Dentetsu]

I find it's also the editors who can be lazy and terrible in fact checking as well... ;)

[railsquid]

I also looks like it is written by someone who does not speak/read/write english as their first langauge.

 

Either that or it's a translation from a Japanese original by someone who knows nothing about trains.

[bikkuri bahn]

I also looks like it is written by someone who does not speak/read/write english as their first langauge.

 

Being a native English speaker is no guarantee of accurate reporting on railway issues, as the "quality" of the reportage in the American press attests.

[katoftw]

No mention of accurate reporting in my post.  Just mentioning the errors sighted my be due to a language barrier.

[westfalen]

Whenever I read a rail related article in any newspaper I see all the mistakes and then wonder about the accuracy of all the other stories in the paper, are they all full of errors that I just haven't picked up because I'm not as familiar with the subject?

 

I like this bit.

 

When the president of TGV, the French rail line that is said to be the fastest in the world, visited Japan, he said:

“There is no match for the shinkansen. I want to take the cleaning staff home with me.”

 

After riding French trains I'd have to agree with him.

[Davo Dentetsu]

When the president of TGV, the French rail line that is said to be the fastest in the world, visited Japan, he said:

“There is no match for the shinkansen. I want to take the cleaning staff home with me.”

 

Sounds like something Silvio Berlusconi would say.  :P

[railsquid]

Though I don't think he'd say it after actually seeing the Shinkansen cleaning staff, fine sprightly bunch that they are ;)

[Guest ___]

Part of the problem is that much reporting is not covered by journalists anymore but rather any layman with a twitter feed or a kid and an iPhone with a constant connection.  The remainder of still around are expected to be writer, reporter, photographer, copy editors now. I can say my workload is five times greater now than it  was ten years ago, for about 35% less pay. It use to be most journalists specialized in one field, mine being spot news and the transportation sector, while others might is sports or financial. Today, most media outlets want one person to cover everything, and not SME's.

 

But, getting back on point, in the case of the OP link, I doubt whoever wrote the article was a journalist, but rather a simple contributor or citizen journalist. Personally, I'm a bit tired of anyone who makes a blog post as being attributed as a journalist, and anyone with a wordpress blog who paid for a domain name as being credited as a media outlet. needless to say, my opinions on UGC and the media is not very high.