EDITORIAL - Credibility and context

It is not always the issue of corruption that eats into the credibility of the media. More often than not, the erosion of public confidence in media is the result of sloppy reporting, from "slight" infractions as insufficiency of facts, to more "serious" offenses as inaccuracy of details.

Public response to any of these media failings can range from disappointment to plain anger. The in-between, however, can sometimes provide some comic relief, depending on the capacity for humor of readers. Whichever, a lot of red faces can also ensue in many a newsroom over these shortcomings.

One recent example is that story in the local papers during the weekend regarding the seizure of a truckload of illegally-harvested brown algae. The fun involves the appreciation of how much brown algae was confiscated by the authorities.

This, your newspaper, wary of the figure given -- an incredible 15,000 tons -- chose to be safe when the figure could no longer be verified. We simply placed it at a truckload of algae. Another newspaper said 11,000 kilos. It probably got the figure right, either right off the bat or after some verification.

But a third newspaper went ahead with 15,000 tons. Now that is a little way off in light of the other circumstances involved in the story. Somewhere along the way, some details must have gotten a little fuzzy, yet still managed to slip away into the public domain.

The characteristics of the single Isuzu truck that hauled the illegally-harvested seaweeds were not described but from photos taken of the vehicle, the truck appears to be of the F Series of the truck brand. A research on the F Series Isuzu says it can carry a load of from 10 tons to 20 tons.

So clearly, a single Isuzu F Series truck could not carry the 15,000 tons of algae that one newspaper reported. If it tried to, it would be flattened like pancake. So just what exactly is 15,000 tons like? There is a need to visualize that kind of weight.

Let us take ships as a matter of reference, since we are all familiar with ships. One example of a ship is the MV Filipinas Butuan, the newest ship of Cebu-based Cokaliong Shipping Lines. The Filipinas Butuan is listed as weighing 3,096 tons.

Going back to the reported "15,000 tons" of brown algae loaded on a single truck, it would appear that five ships the size of MV Filipinas Butuan were carried by that Isuzu. Now that is taxing public credulity too much, if it weren't so funny.