Quote of the Week: Journalism and HMCS Corner Brook

For many years, M.E. has been on a crusade to improve the quality of journalism by professionals. Readers of this blog may recall, by way of example, errors in submarine-related news by inexperienced or otherwise unqualified reporters. If not, here are just two examples:

4 years ago - Journalistic Submarine Error(s) - Bad, Ugly and Good

Last month - Either M.E.'s Submarine Quote of the Week, or Very Poor Journalism

Today comes unexpected third-party support for improved journalism:

3 MAR 2012 - Journalists sub-par on sub debate - By Tim Dunne, a Halifax-based communications consultant and military affairs writer, a Research Fellow with Dalhousie University’s Centre for Foreign Policy Studies and a member of the Royal United Services Institute (NS) Security Affairs Committee.

Mr. Dunne injects relevant knowledge (read it all), as in these excerpts:

Missing from the debate was that the damage was to the front of the submarine’s fibreglass casing. Four metres inside the damaged casing is the pressure hull, made of 3.8-centimetre HY 80 steel, and this is the main compartment where the crew and controls are located. While the vessel is in the water, the space between the casing and the pressure hull is flooded. ...

The information about HMCS Corner Brook’s accident is available on the RCN’s website. The only question remaining is: Why didn’t the reporters and commentators take a few moments to read it before going on air?

Moreover, Dunne's opinion piece provides M.E.'s Quote of the Week:

"The people who talk the most understand the least." - New York Times writer Paul Krugman

Submarines are always silent and strange.