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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think editors should fact-check their articles?

3 replies

givemushypeasachance · 18/01/2011 14:00

What is Sooty doing in The King's Speech?

Yes, it's a Daily Mail article, sorry. But the title caught my eye as I recently saw the film and enjoyed it, but I didn't remember Sooty popping up part way through to shove Colin Firth out the way of the microphone! (A non-speaking bear might have been helpful for some of the speech therapy sessions though...)

The author picks out Helena Bonham-Carter asking a child whether they like Sooty as being a historical mistake in the film, since it is set in the 1930's and Sooty wasn't around until 1948. D'oh - a glaring error for the producers there!

The author makes an argument that "period" films and dramas are often filled with sloppy mistakes and inaccuracies, and that this prevents him from enjoying them. Other examples given include the Bride in Kill Bill travelling on a plane with a samurai sword next to her, which would of course never be allowed if even nail-scissors are confiscated. I'm not sure it was that bit of Kill Bill that was most unbelievable, but each to his own!

The bizarre thing is that the article itself is based on a giant inaccuracy - the Sooty reference wasn't actually in the film! H-B-C actually says to the child "would you like a sweetie?", as a cursory re-watching of that scene or even checking the subtitles would have shown. Dozens of people have picked up on this in the article comments, but the piece is still there alongside a big picture of Sooty.

Is it too much to ask that the Mail editors could maybe give a brief check of the facts before they print their articles?

OP posts:
Punkatheart · 18/01/2011 14:04

If the editors of The Daily Mail checked all their stories for factual accuracy, bias and general ignorance - there would be no paper.

But the point is a valid one - I hate this too. Silly about the dramatic licence in Kill Bill...you can believe a murderous martial arts trained bride and not that there is a sword on a plane? Please.

I think that everything is so rushed these days - newspapers have deadlines and they are paying less people to proofread and fact check....

unhappyshopper · 18/01/2011 14:09

The DM does it all the time.

A recent article about the Apprentice gave a summing up of the show with so many inaccuracies people wondered if the author had actually watched, or just made it up.

wildfig · 18/01/2011 15:38

You know that old saying about a hundred monkeys in a room with typewriters eventually producing Hamlet? Well, the Daily Mail can only afford thirty monkeys, but they're all on strict deadlines.

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