Professional reporting

The Macclesfield Express excelled itself again last Wednesday with a great example of sensationalist but vague reporting by a chap called Nigel O'Conner.

Old Nige was following the standard rule of local papers. Simplify everything so there's no fact left, then sensationalise.

The front page carried an article which apparently uncovered evidence that motorcyclists like to nail it up the cat and fiddle. (I'm still looking for the "New" in "News" here).

With regards to the time it takes them to travel between Macc and the Cat and Fiddle pub it carried the line on the front page:

"the quickest time featured on the site is less than seven minutes. If drivers stick to the speed limit, the time would be considerably longer."

So I got the map out. And a piece of paper. And a pencil. And some bog standard mapping skills we teach to the Scouts on Tuesday night.

On the speed limit, it's 7 minutes 30 seconds. "Considerably" longer than 7 minutes. Well done Nige.

For clarification, I'm not saying there's not a problem. It just needs to be reported in a more professional manner. The big scandal about the Cat and Fiddle is that a lot of the bikers know full well that there's a lack of Rozzers up there when it's a Macc Town home game, because quite often the traffic officers get roped in to lend a hand.

And it's not the speed, it's the manner of riding...I'm going to come back to this in a couple of days and discuss the issue of road safety.