In the rush to be first with news truth is often a casualty.
Whilst the Jimmy Savile scandal was at its peak a presenter, who shall remain nameless, was happy to read out some good news on the subject, purportedly sent in by a lady who had appeared on Jim'll Fix It as a young girl. In it she told of how Jimmy had fulfilled her childhood ambition of milking a cow whilst she was blindfolded. It was only after a lot of sniggering by the presenter's crew that she realised that it was a hoax.
Following the crash-landing a few weeks ago at San Francisco airport a reporter on KTVU reported that they now had the names of the Korean air crew on board at the time. Given that the captain was Sum Ting Wong and the co-pilot was Wi Tu Lo a moment's reflection or appreciation of what real Korean names look like might have spared them possibility of a law suit based on racism (which was later dropped) as well as professional embarassment. If you read the article then you'll see that the Australian site reporting it felt the need to translate the names just in case someone missed the joke.
I'm now awaiting the announcement that the word gullible has been removed from the next edition of the Oxford Dictionary.
