"Theft By Knockout"-Dundalk Leader...

Wertz

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I'm lost for words.

I've attached a scan of the front page in case you didn't get your copy of this fine publication yet.

These people think they're journalists? Doing a write up about a well known eMail hoax that has been doing the rounds for ages, in such an alarmist manner with no actual story to even write about barring the opinions of anonymous contributors? What's even sadder is the fact that they go on to tell of women being infomed by text message about the threat, these texts so far being the only actual basis for the rumour starting in the first place since the local Garda divsion were unaware of any such assault/robbery (but nonetheless expressed concern).

Don't you people read the internet?
Here I'll even do your bloody research for you:
http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/perfume.asp

What does reporting a non-story like this do for anyone's safety in the locale? All this does is put people on their guard about something that isn't going to happen to them. There's enough real muggings and handbag snatches to worry about without this chainmail inspired claptrap.
For a newspaper that prides itself on supporting local shops and businesses, they're doing a damn fine job of chasing any remaining female shoppers out of the town to somewhere they won't be mugged in a car park...maybe if they really used their heads they could have claimed this was happening in the carparks at the Quays and the Buttercrane and kept people shopping local


The next time someone tries putting the Leader in my letterbox, there'll be another knockout for them to report...

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Relax! :rolleyes:
It's a cr*p free paper. Do you think many people actually read it, or if they do, pay it any attention?

SDTimeout

Tempted to go to the marshes car park now and look shady :pac:

petes

They haz no internetz!!!

It's ridiculous to be honest. Every email of this ilk that comes my way I always have to check it out to make sure it's either genuine or fake.

Wertz

Leah Handsome Tower wrote: »

Relax! :rolleyes:
It's a cr*p free paper. Do you think many people actually read it, or if they do, pay it any attention?

I read it when I picked it up off the doormat. I happen to already know the story is an urban myth. I know plenty of people in my area who would read it, same way as they read the other local rags (free or paid for) and I know that there's plenty of people with no web access or the wit to realise that this is a BS rumour.

The point is not whether people read it or not...the publisher certainly intends that it be read, they sell advertising space on the strength of that....with that in mind I'd think it was a pretty basic requirement to at least establish facts before you go printing wildly alarmist nonsense on the front page.

Here's your :rolleyes: right back at you.

DundalkDuffman

Wertz wrote: »

I read it when I picked it up off the doormat. I happen to already know the story is an urban myth.

Exactly what happened to me as well. It really is not worth the cost of it Its handy for the classifieds and for picking up doggy do but thats about its limit.

anti chris-t

i lol'd when i saw this headline in a paper as i think that there was a thread on ah about this about a week before this paper came out. maybe thats where they got the idea from

petes

anti chris-t wrote: »

i lol'd when i saw this headline in a paper as i think that there was a thread on ah about this about a week before this paper came out. maybe thats where they got the idea from

Well you don't expect them to find their own stories? :pac:

I love the OP's post. It's so true, and hilarious.

such an alarmist manner with no actual story to even write about

Brilliant stuff!

Sir Rantsalot

Agree with you completely Wertz. Absolute rubbish. And if my company had paid for an advertisement in that rag I'd be fuming at their irresponsible scare-mongering.

That "true story that happened in (add name of local town)'s Tesco/Aldi/Walmart/Dunnes" has been doing the email and text rounds for at least ten years now. However, some of my younger cousins received these texts and were frightened by them.

There's enough to worry about with the real threat of mugging or assault in the town without making up extra stuff to worry about.

hellboy99

I wouldn't expect anything less from the Leader, bad grammar, bad spelling and full of crap :rolleyes:

I see the bad grammar is present on the front page article:

"The plot of the scam is that a women walking to her car..."

"When the woman smelt it she went unconscious..."

The paper is that good that their own staff don't read over it to check for mistakes before going to print

Wertz

Sir Rantsalot wrote: »

However, some of my younger cousins received these texts and were frightened by them.

See there's my main problem with the article...it perpetuates the urban myth and gives it added legs...there's nothing you can do about chain eMails and group txts, people need to use their discretion there, but when you plaster it across the front page of a paper and fire it the letterbox of half the houses in the town, without bothering to even make sure there might be some basis to the rumour, you give it an awful lot more credibility.

Were I an owner or had a business interest in any of the town's SCs, I'd be fairly concerned that this article might damage business or lower footfall and I'd be seriously questioning why the Leader went ahead with it without even one actual report to gardaí about such a theft taking place to back it up.

Everyone knows the only muggers in Marshes car parks are the parking ticket machines :pac:

Hellboy99; I'd be willing to look the other way on their grammar and spelling...the Argus and Democrat can be equally complacent with their writing at times. It's annoying that people tasked with writing, and with the benefits of spell checkers can't seem to avoid elementary mistakes. But that said, grammar and spelling don't subtract from the credibility of any given article...that's only done by lack of facts...

amacachi

Totally agree Wertz, the ma had gotten a text 2 days before about it, apparently it happened in Newry:rolleyes: I told her it was bull**** but then she read about it in that "paper". Trouble is that a lot of older people won't believe anything on the internet, so me telling her what was online about it didn't convince her much, as soon as she saw something in a paper about it she believed it.
Shocking standards altogether.

Next week in the Dundalk Leader: Man speaks of ordeal after block of frozen plane waste destroys his car!

Wertz

Yeah It was my car...I'm currently suing NASA, but ssshh...don't want the press getting wind of it...

amacachi

Good thing you're already somewhat anonymous on here.

I'd love to know who the paper were supposedly talking to.

dougie ward

i live in galway but was home recently and my mother had mentioned it, i said it was an urban myth.she said she read it in the paper, i never put two and two together until i saw this thread! i hate this lazy journalism,its absolute pipe!

MugMugs

With respects to the boys and girls of the leader, can you not cut them a bit of slack ?

To be fair, it is a free rag but there are times when it makes better reading than some of the stuff the other two PAY FOR rags print...

DamoDLK

They probably didn't want to take the risk, but i agree they should have at least googled it.

Wertz

MugMugs wrote: »

With respects to the boys and girls of the leader, can you not cut them a bit of slack ?

To be fair, it is a free rag but there are times when it makes better reading than some of the stuff the other two PAY FOR rags print...

Reporting crimes that haven't happened? In Dundalk? I mean it's not like you need to make sh*t up.

They ran another story a week or so back about gangs of men, most likely foreign, who were robbing people on the street by intimidation...again no report of an actual crime reported to gardaí in the piece and very sketchy details about who was robbed or where it might have happened. I'm not saying that said story doesn't happen...in fact I'd be surprised if it didn't in some way similar to how they report it...but just like the knockout story, the article is light on facts and heavy on scare/shock value.

I agree somewhat that it's comparable in quality to the Argus and Democrat, especially in regard that it's free...but nonsense stories like this undermine credibility and make it a bit pointless. I'm sure their "mistake" was pointed out to them...I'd have thought it would have been policy to retract/apologise for publishing inaccuracies...that they haven't just makes it look like they stand by this story and that it has merit...not how any newspaper should conduct itself, free or not...

MugMugs

Wertz, Why criticise them here ? Why not do so to their faces ? Write to the leader, point out their flaws and the flaws in their stories and demand that they publish your letter and their retraction !

If they fail to publish your letter then I would support you in criticising them !

the heathen

MugMugs wrote: »

With respects to the boys and girls of the leader, can you not cut them a bit of slack ?

To be fair, it is a free rag but there are times when it makes better reading than some of the stuff the other two PAY FOR rags print...

Nonsense. It's meant to be a newspaper and that should mean they meet certain very basic journalistic standards. And one of those standards is checking the veracity of the story you've written before putting it on the front page of your publication. If I want to read made up stories I'll buy a comic.

And the fact that it's free should have nothing to do with it. They just take their revenue in a different way from the other newspapers.

MugMugs

the heathen wrote: »

Nonsense. It's meant to be a newspaper and that should mean they meet certain very basic journalistic standards. And one of those standards is checking the veracity of the story you've written before putting it on the front page of your publication. If I want to read made up stories I'll buy a comic.

And the fact that it's free should have nothing to do with it. They just take their revenue in a different way from the other newspapers.

the heathen, i am not condoning the inaccuarcy of the story and appreciate the fact that this article was wrong but to be fair I stand by my previous post.... Cut them some slack... This paper is written by humans and therefore is subject to human error.

Wertz

MugMugs wrote: »

Wertz, Why criticise them here ? Why not do so to their faces ? Write to the leader, point out their flaws and the flaws in their stories and demand that they publish your letter and their retraction !

If they fail to publish your letter then I would support you in criticising them !

Sorry only saw this post now.

I guess I'm just not the letter writing type...I prefer the instant gratification and guaranteed publishing of the 'net.
Being the most popular messageboard in the country, I can nearly take it for granted that someone in the DL staff will either see this thread or hear of it...I'll take that over submitting a complaint via letter that most likely goes ignored and unpublished.
As well as that I feel the supposed subject matter of the article is more of interest to web users and unlike a one time letter, I also get to discuss the article and related topics with other users.

I realise that anyone can make a mistake...but again, that's what a proof reader or an editor is for...it's one of the very basics of any sort of journalism, be it free or otherwise, that you at least base articles and stories on substantiated claims and reports, not hearsay, anonymous opinion and weakly garnered facts.

My name is URL

haha I read this in the DL

Didn't know it was an urban myth at the time but I actually laughed reading it.

Journalism? lmao