Sometimes journalist suck... Chevy Volt "fire"

[culver]

So I saw this report and just felt like dope slapping the reporters.
Hybrid Car May Have Sparked Garage Blaze - Connecticut News Story - WFSB Hartford

The short version is guy owns a Chevy Volt. Garage catches fire. Even though there is no evidence that the Volt caused the fire the article headline suggests the connection and a sentence in the article again makes the suggestion while taking a fire marshal's quote effectively out of context. The marshal says they can't rule it out... well at the beginning of an investigation when the garage is still smoldering of course he can't rule it out. He also can't rule out arson and a number of other "possible" causes.

The house is old, there are two electric cars in the garage (one home built) and presumably both were charging. It seems to me this news agency was really digging to add controversy to a story where none existed.

[250gto boy]

I see what you're saying but there is a small chance that there was an electrical fire. It could have been any number of problems but they are adding controversy to a stupid story.

[taz_rocks_miami]

This is just a ploy to sell more papers, but I doubt it will become a problem for the Bolt and hurt it´s sales and reputation, unless it keeps on happening.

[culver]

I see what you're saying but there is a small chance that there was an electrical fire. It could have been any number of problems but they are adding controversy to a stupid story.

Do you mean a small chance it was a wiring related fire or a small chance it was caused by the Volt? I would say we can't say the Volt cause but excluding the current draw of the charger causing a problem for the household wring I think the odds that the Volt had anything to do with the fire is very remote. If the charge current was too much for the wiring to handle that's not GM's fault, that is wiring that was not up to code.

Of course it also could be, as you said, any number of small problems.

[csl177]

Naturally, no mention of the owner's home-built electric car or faulty charging/wiring system as possible culprit. GM as a big-ol' soft target is an easier false re-direct. Print the sensation if you wanna sell... the newspaperman's credo: if it bleeds, it leads.

[VOGUE_MAN]

Oh that's funny, but not overly surprising.

You would love living in Australia where our main news sources are no better, probably worse, than reading a tabloid magazine. Every news 'article' is purely written to further someone's agenda or create hysteria and there's zero repercussion for just publishing pure drivel that wouldn't pass in a first year journalism students university class.

[Kitdy]

You would love living in Australia where our main news sources are no better, probably worse, than reading a tabloid magazine. Every news 'article' is purely written to further someone's agenda or create hysteria and there's zero repercussion for just publishing pure drivel that wouldn't pass in a first year journalism students university class.

That is likely the case in most countries.

[ScionDriver]

Just so we're all clear, that is a television station website, so no need to "sell" papers. However, it is taking one aspect of the story that probably shouldn't be played up in the headline.

I am probably a little sensitive on the subject since I am a journalist but I have seen myself at the paper I work at and papers I've worked at in the past, taking the juiciest part of a story and playing it up in the headline. It's unfortunate and not always fair (I've questioned it openly before) but I guess it's part of the biz. I think it would get the same number of hits if it said "Garage fire under investigation" or "Cause of blaze unknown"

[csl177]

That is likely the case in most countries.

It is... for extreme sensationalism, check out media from South and Central America. Nothin' like graphic photos of a crime scene to start the day. In other cultures mild titilation works... the Sun's page 3 girls are much more pleasant than gore for breakfast.

Just so we're all clear, that is a television station website, so no need to "sell" papers.

You're right of course, showed my age by using the term "newspaperman". But they're selling advertising via page views for the same old reason. Newspaper websites, TV stations, magazines, etc. all have one thing in common: a need for content that will drive eyes to their revenue producers. Feeding the 24/7/365 beast has got to be as soul-sucking for folks with a byline as it is for consumers of it.

[IBrake4Rainbows]

So the dude has a homemade electric car in the garage and the mass -produced, government accredited, tested and checked vehicle caused the fire?

nice. Thats believable.

[kingofthering]

We all know it's that Socialist, Communist, Fascist, Sexist, Cubist, secret Indonesian Barry Soetoro Saddamn Hussein Obama's fault.

Because everything's his fault if you add enough -ist words before his name. And throw in the name of his Indonesian stepfather

(I'm joking, not trying to step on anyone's toes. )

[ScionDriver]

You're right of course, showed my age by using the term "newspaperman". But they're selling advertising via page views for the same old reason. Newspaper websites, TV stations, magazines, etc. all have one thing in common: a need for content that will drive eyes to their revenue producers. Feeding the 24/7/365 beast has got to be as soul-sucking for folks with a byline as it is for consumers of it.

It's interesting though, people complain about the news is always bad or that they are just trying to make money selling the gore, etc. But in the daily email that goes out to the newsroom with the most viewed stories from the previous day, they are consistently the stories relating to weather, traffic, crime, deaths, fires, accidents. So that just gives the media more reason to play up those stories.

[Kitdy]

It's interesting though, people complain about the news is always bad or that they are just trying to make money selling the gore, etc. But in the daily email that goes out to the newsroom with the most viewed stories from the previous day, they are consistently the stories relating to weather, traffic, crime, deaths, fires, accidents. So that just gives the media more reason to play up those stories.

I think it might go both ways. People want to see the LCD stuff that the media provides, but the media has a role in determining what the people want - to some extent at least.

[pimento]

Apparently it burnt twice.

GM's response.

[culver]

Again, nothing surprising here. If I put my car in a burning building for a while it's quite likely that any number of the parts of the car that ARE flammable will catch fire thanks to the high ambient heat. How long after the original fire before the next thing caught fire? Is this coming from the same stupid reporters who jumped to conclusions the first time? Not long ago I dealt with a minor chemical fire at work. I used a fire extinguisher to put it out. Well the fire went out but the heating element that cause the fire was hot enough to reignite the chemicals. That doesn't mean we had a separate fire. Just a re-flash of the original fire.