This is one of my top pet hates . Why is there an ever increasing number of the press unable to report the actual reality of an aviation event correctly , be that an emergency landing, diversion …
If an estate agent / realtor, listed a new property but then just used a generic picture of a house , i’m guessing the sellers wouldn’t be too pleased! .
Today a Virgin A350 made an emergency landing in Edinburgh, one press outlet obviously could not find that image so hey ho a 747 will do, sloppy! “Firefighters swarm plane”, pretty sure it landed due to a blown tyre, which it flew across the Atlantic with, no story.
As aviation is under extreme scrutiny at present due to defects, weather related incidents, pilot and aircraft shortages, one would hope that at the very least the press could get the right aircraft in an article ! Aviation news reporting just seems to be about drama not reality nowadays , Singapore airlines dives 6000 feet after hitting turbulence, oh really , the most controlled 6000 feet dive ever seen.
In a world where aviation has to be near perfect all of the time you would think that press professionals (not all) would try a bit harder, not just sensationalise events, scaring the travelling public and ultimately causing further damage to the industry . Furthermore when an actual issue should be reported it is now lost in all this aviation based dross. I find it amusing that they are reporting on possibly the most highly regulated industry with stories so poorly conceived. They clearly require some aviation style regulation !
I dread to think what it is like if you have a fear of flying and also read the news. Mind you it could be worse, you could be Boeing !
And do not even get me started on aviation films , talk about lose interest quickly when the number of engines on the wing changes between scenes 
They should all be given a copy of MSFS, they may learn something about aviation, well, at the very least what the aircraft they are reporting on actually looks like .
Thoughts ?
Honestly, they’ve become intellectually lazy at everything they do. There is very little actual investigation and research done prior to reporting anymore. No corroboration of stories occurs - just rush to get the news out to beat the competition. You can see laziness in almost every news story if you look closely enough.
Why would they particularly be good at aviation news outside of this norm?
why are the media so poor. full stop
Because headlines get attention …rightly or wrongly!
If the article read ‘plane lands with flat tyre’ …no one would bother reading it!
The facts are unimportant to most of the press …getting someone to click on the link / buy the paper is the most important thing!
Totally agree. I guess my gripe is that if the content was let’s say about pharmaceuticals / health, it would be frowned upon to be so wildly off the mark so much of the time as it would be seen as causing a public risk. Aviation is such an important part of so many peoples lives, Im surprised that inaccurate / wrong reporting is not better controlled. Does make you wonder what editors do nowadays .
This is called sensationalism.
(especially in journalism) the use of exciting or shocking stories or language at the expense of accuracy, in order to provoke public interest or excitement.
When I was in college and took a photojournalism class we talked mostly about ethics, and the position the news held. Now over 15 years later the entire journalism industry has changed. It used to be get the news right, not fast. Now it’s about getting the news fast and not correct necessarily. We live in a world where everyone wants to be first to break the story regardless if they got it right or not. Sensationalism used to be looked down on, as a cheap way to engage readers/viewers, now it’s the norm.
Fixed it for ya. 
Always makes me wonder. Media are so poor when reporting on anything Aviation related. It’s only when you actually know a bit about what is being reported, that you know it’s nonsense… That in mind, the worry really should be about what is being reported that you know nothing about.
I think the general public is at least partly to blame as well.
When you eat pretty looking junk food and don’t complain, more pretty looking junk food is what you’ll get for your next easily digestible news meal.
They are just not held accountable for the rubbish they say or write and in general don’t have any knowledge of the subject matter on which they are reporting.
Ah, the frustration of those in the industry or enthusiasts. Media reports specific aircraft type involved in incident, yet shows image of another aircraft type. It’s that the general public at large doesn’t really know the difference (or perhaps care) so any “airliner” image will do. It’s like in the movies you see a 4-bladed Sikorsky S-76 yet it sounds like Bell 206 - Ugh.
On the positive side, it’s encouraging when they get it right and do pay attention to the details. Again, the industry folks and enthusiasts appreciate it more than most of the general public would probably recognize the difference.
The Gell-Mann Amnesia effect, a name coined by Michael Crichton:
“Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray [Gell-Mann]'s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”