Similar thing with some news reports of the Slimbridge Crane chicks. Only made clear in the details that they were the first "In the west of England". Poor reporting or sloppy press release?
In my limited (but not insignificant) experience of the press, I would hazard a guess that the chances of them misquoting/misunderstanding is more likely than any other explanation. Anyway, great news of the breeding though!
Bit of both, Mike. As birders we have the knowledge to pick through the reports & get the right story, but pity the general public who take in the facts as reprted & then think that that is gospel truth. The number of times someone has told me of an amazing story in their newspaper of a fantastic bird breedng for the first time ever in the UK & it is simply the first local breeding of that species (that the reporter has heard of!!)
-- Edited by Doc Brewster on Monday 16th of June 2014 11:19:30 PM
Similar thing with some news reports of the Slimbridge Crane chicks. Only made clear in the details that they were the first "In the west of England". Poor reporting or sloppy press release?
Yep, I posted the same on a Twitter feed when someone posted the original Tweet!! Was a bit ambiguous as it could have been read that they were the first to breed 'in the south' of England for 30 years when reading the original tweet!! Of course 'Up North' doesn't count