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Originally Posted by Waterbaby
However, it is NEVER safe to swerve over the (center or otherwise)line, whether in a group or alone, and if this had not happened then maybe the accident would not have happened. The driver of the Jeep was interviewed and said she saw the motorcycle swerve over the line so she swerved to avoid said motorcycle, and that's when things (my words) went wrong. I cannot even imagine how she must feel, trying to avoid an accident and one of such magnitude occurring.
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This is a great example someone's reaction when "the news" shapes "the event" (when it should be the other way around).
Basically, none of us were there to see the event - and neither was the reporter. However, when you read articles like this, they take something from a witness statement (like the bike swerved over the line) and present it as fact for the remainder of the article. We don't know if there's some critical detail missing, like the biker swerved to avoid a deer - who knows. But from the article, one is only left with the mental picture of the bike carelessly careening around a curve. This may have been the case, but my point is we (and the reporter) just don't know.
There is an obvious slant to the article - "the innocent Jeep driver who was forced into the unfortunate predicament where she took the life of the careless biker(s)". To me, that was the "message" that the reported wanted to convey when presenting the story. That itself is the problem.
Why not just report the facts? There's nothing wrong with including witness statements, but qualify them as such, and certainly don't present them as facts so that people can make up their own minds. This is, in my opinion, the reason why Police and Fire logs are the only real journalism in newspapers anymore - "John Doe, arrested at 10:07 PM at 123 Main Street on an outstanding warrant. An unregistered gun was recovered from a vehicle registered to him at that address". It's not exciting. It's not flashy. But at least I can make up my own mind if he's the victim or a criminal.