|
|
Post by kerryssi on Mar 13, 2008 20:27:32 GMT -8
News can be generated out of nothing. Did you know that the germs for lockjaw are in every bit of dirt planet wide? They could check out your front yard and say it is fully contaminated and you are in danger of getting lockjaw ( as is every other person on the planet). Next your neighbours would be calling for sterilization of your house and yard. Basically the same for streptococcus germs, we are all carriers. Sensational sells and that is the medias business, selling stories to sell advertizing to get revenue. Truth is boring and does not sell advertizing.
|
|
Neil
Voyager 
Posts: 7,187
|
Post by Neil on Mar 13, 2008 21:25:22 GMT -8
Everyone is saying it is slow news. No, it is not slow news: Global does an insight each week on a certain subject and cleanliness happened to be this weeks. The fact that a BC Ferry was the place for the most bacteria is shocking considering the number of bacteria and choloform found and I bet even if they did the tests on a Spirit class, the results would be similar. What this report says is that people do not practice proper hygiene like washing hands after using the washroom or after coughing into their hands and it also shows that BC Ferries are insufficiently cleaning their vessels regardless of their age. Igw, here's the difference between real news and 'slow news', as you call it. Real news: Doctors around the south coast region report an influx of patients coming into their offices with stomach, intestinal, and respiratory ailments. Patients commonly report that they had all taken ferry trips recently; ferry workers also start phoning in sick in unusual numbers, with similar ailments. 'Slow news': TV or print newsrooms need to do a feature that will grab the public's attention, and hopefully kick up some fear, to keep people tuning in. Germs are good; you can get some really impressive numbers no matter where you go- ferries, MacDonald's counters, popcorn seasoning shakers at the cinema, the dishcloth in your kitchen. It's like shooting fish in a barrel, and it looks like investigative reporting. Another example is the recent Province newspaper series on 'disaster preparedness'. They basically rehashed stories they'd done over the last few years, and hopefully, kept people buying papers each day to find out how we're ultimately going to go down in some form of chaos, and, shudder, we're not prepared. What passes for investigative reporting these days is pathetic. Newsrooms everywhere have been cut back, and in depth insightful reporting is replaced by these phony 'drive by' stories, that are forgotten as soon as next week's angle is dreamed up. Yes, ferries are germy, public places. Hopefully, staff can clean them up a bit, but in the meantime, I'll still be living dangerously, and eating the chicken fingers. |
|
|
|
Post by Newsroom on Mar 13, 2008 22:55:20 GMT -8
Slow news day? Are you living in the same province I am? This week has been very busy!
While alot of people on this forum like to support BC Ferries like their spoiled child after getting into a school yard scuffle, the underlying fact here is that a BC Ferries vessel was found to be grossly un-sanitary.
Then there are these talking points...
"oh it was an un-fair test, you can't compare a skytrain to a ferry - A bus doesn't have a cafeteria!" or something along those lines...
Anyways, the Global BC story on that date examined the cleanliness of surfaces on board major transportation vehicles (SkyTrain, Air Canada, Coast Mountain Bus and BC Ferries) It did not test the cleanliness of the food on board the ferry - That, would have been an additional variable and unfair in this test. The only thing tested were surfaces commonly touched (hand rails, cafeteria counters, airplane toilet seats, armrests etc.)
And then there is this gem of a quote...
"It's almost not fair using the "V" Class Vessels. For one they're the oldest vessels of the fleet and who says they'll even be running on Route 1 in 2010. They should have inspected a "C" Class or another vessel that's for sure running in 2010."
BC Ferries still operates them. It's absolutely fair game. Using your logic, I guess it would be OK to remove all the lifeboats and lifejackets from the V Class? The boats have never had an accident before, and they're almost retired so we probably wont need them...
The point is simple: basic sanitation on a BC Ferries Vessel was found to be lacking...Extremely. And for some people to completely bypass the fact of the story and instantly blame it on a "slow news day" or whatever, is ludacris. It's like saying "I just shot a guy! But It's O.K., I'm late for work and he was in my way!" Sound Ridiculous? It's because it is.
End of Rant.
|
|
Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,187
|
Post by Neil on Mar 14, 2008 9:02:40 GMT -8
The point is simple: basic sanitation on a BC Ferries Vessel was found to be lacking...Extremely. And for some people to completely bypass the fact of the story and instantly blame it on a "slow news day" or whatever, is ludacris. It's like saying "I just shot a guy! But It's O.K., I'm late for work and he was in my way!" Sound Ridiculous? It's because it is. I agree: your analogy is ridiculous. Is there any evidence to show that now, or at any time in the last 48 years, people have been getting sick because of unsanitary conditions on BC Ferries, any more than they would have been impacted by conditions in any other public place? Any suggestion of rotten hamburgers, or rat hair in the chowder? That would be legitimate news. 'Basic sanitation' is not lacking on ferries. What is lacking is context in the news media, because context can ruin a good scandal. I'll agree with you on one point- it's irrelevant which ferry they tested. Germs are everywhere. Wash your hands. Big news story. |
|
|
|
Post by BreannaF on Mar 14, 2008 9:17:14 GMT -8
Slow news day? Are you living in the same province I am? This week has been very busy! The point is simple: basic sanitation on a BC Ferries Vessel was found to be lacking...Extremely. And for some people to completely bypass the fact of the story and instantly blame it on a "slow news day" or whatever, is ludicrous. It's like saying "I just shot a guy! But It's O.K., I'm late for work and he was in my way!" Sound Ridiculous? It's because it is. OK, so it wasn't a slow news day. I'll take that as a given. The more important part of my point was that it is plainly obvious that there will be bacteria on hand rails and toilet seats and counters in public places. That isn't exactly news to anyone who is paying attention. You will find a lot of bacteria on ANY surface touches by a lot of people every day. My Mother has told me since I was a child that it unsanitary to put money in my mouth, since it has been touched by a lot of different people and would have bacteria on it. That is an interesting fact, and perhaps a public health concern, but it is certainly not news. You are not the first news outlet in North America to have done a similar local story, and you will not be the last. That was the genesis of my "slow news day" comment. This is not exactly "breaking news". There are so many variables in the way a test like this would be conducted -- method of taking the sample, time of day that it was taken, relative busyness of the particular vehicle tested, and so on -- that it would seem difficult to say at the end of such a test that transportation provider X is the least sanitary. If you had swabbed 5 different Coast Mountain buses, you would have come up with 5 different quantitative results. Would the conclusion have been that one is better maintained than the other? If you had gone to 5 fast food restaurants and checked the counters, would the amount of bacteria been a function of which has the better cleanliness standards, or which one wiped the counter most recently before your arrival. Given that, would there have been enough information to declare that one of the 5 restaurants was the most dirty? While I don't discount the hard work you went to to prepare this story, and while it may be fair to conclude that on the day you arrived the ferry was dirtier than the bus or the plane, that does not necessarily bring the conclusion that BC Ferries is dirtier as a whole than the other transportation providers. And, you will find that I am not a blind supporter of many of BC Ferries programs, by any stretch of the imagination. However, you will find that it is stories like this (that are not "real news") that has caused me over the years to watch less and less TV news. |
|
|
|
Post by kerryssi on Mar 14, 2008 10:25:14 GMT -8
Slow news day.....I have lived on Saltspring Island 30 years. About every 6 or 7 years the Province or Sun re runs the same D***ed article. In it the Island is described as having one car pass by every 20 minutes or so. Cars stop for bicycles and give them the right of way. Everyone stops to admire the sheep. There is no mention of steep hills, narrow roads with no shoulders Dump trucks, logging trucks, cement trucks, motor homes etc. The island was not like described when I moved here in '76 and is very far from that now yet every few years the media drag out that tired old piece and re run it. Talk about a slow news day!!! You would think someone in the media would at least visit the island and get it sort of right.
|
|
|
|
Post by Alex on Mar 14, 2008 15:37:53 GMT -8
That would be why I avoid touching any surfaces touched by others. If I do, I wash my hands. This isn't really news. Considering BC Ferries could quite literally solve this entire problem tomorrow by cleaning more often, it's not a big issue.
|
|
|
|
Post by Scott on Mar 14, 2008 16:11:01 GMT -8
It would be interesting to see the tests more in their context. Did they test the Queen of Saanich at the end of a 3 oclock sailing with 200 school kids returning from a field trip on board or the Queen of Vancouver on a 7 oclock trip on a Saturday morning? Did they test the White Rock bus during the morning rush or the Granville Bus at 2 am in the morning?
I'll admit, I didn't see the news story so I don't know how deep into the context the story went. But if it was just ranking BC Ferries, skytrain, buses (and others) and talking about what they found... it's junk science.
|
|
Quatchi
Voyager
Engineering Officer - CCG
Posts: 930
|
Post by Quatchi on Mar 14, 2008 16:21:30 GMT -8
I don't think anyone here is being to critical of the story.
When I watched the clip the guy just scrapped around the surfaces and to my eyes didn't have a glove on so for all we know the ferry is spotless and the guy sneezed on his hand prior to taking the sample.
Of course if that was the actual sample taking.
I am assuming that Newsroom is related to Canwest somehow, if not sorry, so go back to your boss and tell him if he wants me to support his story, next time do a real study. You should go out and take 100's if not 1000's of samples per location at different times of the day at different times of the year and wear a latex glove next time. Then get the average or maybe get someone from UBC to look your results and practice's.
Just a pointer for the next time you do an investigative report.
Don't you guys watch "CSI" ;D
Cheers,
|
|
|
|
Post by kerryssi on Mar 14, 2008 20:02:25 GMT -8
It is not so simple as cleaning more often. That would mean hiring a lot more staff. It is not going to happen. They are working the staff they have now half to death and would like to get rid of them. If you have had a normal life you have nothing to worry about, you have built up resistance to these germs which are a part of your every day life. If you were brought up in a sterile bubble and never exposed to any germs you would die as soon as you stepped outside. It is not a problem for any normal person.
|
|
|
|
Post by Hardy on Mar 15, 2008 5:53:05 GMT -8
No question, Hardy, it's a valid concern. I guess it's just that, when it comes down to a question of what am I more leery of, CanWest or bacteria, I really have to think about it... To put that easily in perspective, Neil: "You can control bacteria with routine hand-washing and a good disinfectant." -- both of which are easily done.   |
|
|
|
Post by Northern Exploration on Mar 15, 2008 7:27:44 GMT -8
Do a joint venture using biology students from one of the Universities next time. Senior ones would know how to do and lend credibility. There is that one young girl who tested ice at fast food restaurants (school project and was featured on Good Morning America and other talk shows). She tested the ice, the water they served and the toilets. Guess which was the cleanest? Ask for no ice next time you go through the drive through. And only bottled water.   |
|
|
|
Post by kerryssi on Mar 15, 2008 10:28:50 GMT -8
Another study showed there were more germs in the kitchen than in the bathroom in the average house. You could sterilize the ship but the first passenger or crewmember who walked on board would begin infecting it.
|
|
