SKY news and the USAF tornado's

[johno617tonka]

i have been watching sky news for the last hour or so (around 7pm) and what a joke they are...


firstly......

they covered the return of 3 para back to sunny colchester and that really touched the heart strings! you could forgive them for the 'pestering' of the boys for an interview, and after the first guy wasn't playing they eventually found two lads who fancied the limelight..

the first one was like the next, a new recruit before they deployed and handled the questions well, even telling the hack that they simply sat reading 'nuts' / 'zoo' and 'the sun' when under RPG attacks... lol..me thinks he will have his face in said mags when they get to hear of his dedication to their excellent articles!!!!

then went on to say how he thought the taliban were all cowards and that they were supplied ok etc etc etc...

the second lad was fresh into the para's and told pretty much the same story and apart from one single use of the F-word, and was under the opinion that it was the first op they had been on in 20 odd years since korea?? not sure the lads from his unit ( 3 para) that stormed mount longdon would agree!! but hey forgive the guy you must as he like his mate seemed equally at ease with what went on

boys to heroes, like all their comrades......


THEN.............

on the other side of this glorious nation they then went on to show our other TRUE brits rioting at the england game.... heroes my ar$e... kn*bs maybe.. they should round every last fookin one of them and get them back on the tri star where the para's have just come from.....


BUT THE BEST BIT WAS...................

during the description of what was going on in korea they tried to explain the deployment of the north's 10,000 arty pieces within range of seoul, but it was ok 'cause they were mates with the yanks and they had......cue vid clip of two tonka's screaming through some desert???????
__________________

[Lazer-Hound]

My all time favourite was the story on the commissioning of the last RN 'Vanguard' 16,000 tonne Trident submarine. Cue stock footage of 2,000 tonne, 1960's vintage Oberon class sub (not too distant from WW2 U-boat) sailing up the Clyde!

[LXGB]

They're at it again today.

BREAKING NEWS!!
Showing a 6 month old u-tube video of a GR7 departing low and fast over the fence buzzing some troops. Must be a slow news day :rolleyes:


LXGB

[QFIhawkman]

But at least they know it's a Harrier this time!

(Well, a "jump jet" as they always like to call it!)

:ugh:

[airborne_artist]

I think this is what the Donkey Wallopers call a jump jet:

http://www.hrmconsultancy.net/images/captioncompjune05.jpg

[WhiteOvies]

AA
Shouldn't your pic be on the hairy flypasts thread?:}

[enginesuck]

My favorite was in the current bun a couple of years back reporting a harrier wkich had an emergency landing a prestwick i think it was.... "the harrier limped home following an engine failure on only its one remaining engine":ugh:

[RobinXe]

There was also a report in one of the less high brow publications with a celestial name, reporting some aircraft taking something somewhere.

The reason why I am no clearer on the subject is that the headline referenced Hercules, with a picture of a C-17, while the body referred to the 'RAF's C-17 Hercules aircraft'.

Still, it's an easy mistake to make, they all look the same to an ignorant moron with no journalistic ethics. If they can't even get research that could easily be carried out on the RAF's public webpage accurate, then how can they hope to credibly tackle more complex subjects.....like horoscopes for example!

[sense1]

I remember reading an article back in mid 2004, a two page spread inside one of the tabloids, with an enormous pic (and a very good one at that) of a Tornado GR4 and a headline that said "RAF Fighter jet almost hits nuclear power station at 1000mph!" :eek:

Now this was refering to a GR4 bonging the 2 mile radius avoid around the nuclear power station on the cumbrian coast (what is it called again??). The facts of the case are that the GR4 was doing approx 420kts and merely brushed the avoid.... but the headline above is what made it to the printing press! Never let the truth get in the way of a good story/headline eh!! What an exaggeration, although hardly surprising!

A GR4 supersonic at low level in the lakes and just missing one of the biggest ground features in that part of the country - ok then! :rolleyes:

[SirToppamHat]

I do wonder whether some of these nonsense captions (eg harrier 2 engines) are actually the result of those in uniform leading the meejah astray! The old 'unofficial quote' from someone in uniform and is just a bit fed-up of being hastled for info, and decides to feed them some complete tripe on the off chance that they are too stupid to check against reality.

Come on, there must be some of you out there who have done similar (or know someone who has) - let's hear the most outrageous ...

STH

[Load Toad]

You can spot the mistakes in the aviation stories. What does it say about all the other stories reported in the media?:uhoh:

[Ops_Monkey]

Sky report on this harrier 'buzz' as "MOD will have a word with the pilots to see if its a stunt or not"
Surely the MOD are aware of the tactical departures that have been common place since the GR's went into the Gan.
Anyone at Cott or Witt see these on a daily basis..

Do sky routinely make stuff up....???

[Olly O'Leg]

BBC mentioned the "Have a word...." bit as well.

How we had to bite our tongues during the fracas in 2003 when Sky/BBC were reporting on "American Cruise Missiles" in action. Incidentally, the media scrubbers knew exactly what was going on - they were here on PPRuNe digging for dirt. Seem to remember one "Stormshadow 2", I think, who was asking a LOT of dodgy questions right around the time it was all kicking off. :mad:

[Archimedes]

<snip>
Do sky routinely make stuff up....???

Do I win the prize for spotting the rethorical question?

[GreenKnight121]

Hey, don't you know about the secret USAF squadron of Tonkas painted like the Saudi ones... to carry out deniable strikes in Arab countries like Iran & Syria without getting the US in trouble? ;)


Or the USN plan to replace the Tomcat with carrier-capable ADVs? :E

[BombayDuck]

well, an Indian newspaper recently printed that the local Defense R&D is developing a heavy weight torpedo which has a length of 6 to 8 kms. :rolleyes:

[BEagle]

"I do wonder whether some of these nonsense captions (eg harrier 2 engines) are actually the result of those in uniform leading the meejah astray!"

If I recall correctly, there used to be the sport of 'Donaldson baiting'. Blokes would drop into the RAF Club after a hard day shuffling paper about in the MoD box - and would pass on tit bits of utter fiction to the Daily Torygraph's air correspondent, Air Cdre Donaldson (who, incidentally, broke the world speed record in 1946 in a RAF Meteor) in exchange for the odd G&T.....

Allegedly!