“Never let the truth get in the way of a good story”

There are few newspaper journalists that are deeply knowledgeable about all aspects of a particular subject. I suspect the journalists reporting on this latest sale/gift of a Spitfire or two would struggle to tell the difference between the different Marks of Spitfire or possibly tell one apart from a Hurricane or possibly even a Fairey Battle. A journalist or lay person for that matter will hang on every word spoken by someone such as an Engineer, pilot of Spit owner/operator and that will be the story. If said provider of information happens to omit that there are other airworthy examples it won’t get into print. Time constraints get in the way of thorough research and corroboration so the interviewee gets to spin the story to promote their own best interests.

Publishers have in the past added and omitted sections of articles that I have written and modified the content, so as to suit the story they believe will sell more titles. When the articles contain technical info that they subsequently rearrange and then print without allowing you sight of the changes it can be very frustrating. As the great unwashed believe there are only a handful of Spits flying in the world they’d be shocked to know just how many are on display, under restoration, in storage or active in the circuit at Duxford. Apart from perhaps a photo in a snooze paper showing a mass flyby to pay tribute to an event or anniversary the majority of non-enthusiasts will remain blissfully ignorant. In truth whether there are two or twenty Mark I’s will not affect the forthcoming election or how much take home pay people will be getting post election. For most people it is just a nice story to hear that someone who has made a great deal of money has made a charitable donation to several good causes. The details are irrelevant…