Communication Breakdown
Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Monday 31 March 2008, 12:24 PM
A textual lesson in story-padding
This one really was too daft to be true. According to a mobile phone website, an anti-street-clutter charity has launched a pilot programme to protect people when they walk into lampposts. Yes, precisely.
"A London-based pilot program has been launched by the charity organisation, Living Streets, to 'pad' lamp posts to protect unwary texters," the article reads. "If successful, the scheme will be extended to other major English cities. A welcome civic assistance program or further proof that the Nanny State has finally flipped its lid?"
This pile of utter nonsense can be traced back, via the ever-estimable Daily Mail, to the directory service company 118.com. As for poor Living Streets, all they did was provide somewhat bemused comment to the Mail reporter about 118's "research" and one-off publicity stunt. Now they're supposed to be running the campaign on a nationwide basis.
Funny what a quick phonecall can tell you. Has journalism finally flipped its lid?
PreviousComments on this post
jeez, I knew the brits were a bit off, but that's putting it mildly... padding lamp posts... that's a bit of a cruel thing to do to a lamp post. anyway, isn't painting it in yellow and black stripes a better (and cheaper) solution? it could also aid unwary motorist texters who are so preoccupied with texting they stop looking where they're going and could drive into them... :-) if it's aimed to protect, then protect all the people involved
What great service! are there any statistics on how many people bumped into lampposts as a result of being distructed by texting?
Another step this charity could take is tell motorists to watchout for texting pedestrians who might walk into the road anytime. Or we could all be sinsible and not text while walking!
