VANCOUVER - Battle of the Operas

I have much more blog worthy things to talk about; but I couldn't let this particular gem of a report from BBC News pass:

US woman crashes into test centre

There are two things going on in this story which I draw your attention to. Firstly, and obviously, anything about people having more trouble with their driving tests than yours truly is always pleasing to read. And, thanks to the foresight of BBC journalists who know those old adages about people loving car wrecks, they even provided video of the incident for our voyeuristic pleasure.

And I'm obviously not the only one enjoying the pleasure as, at time of posting, this was the most read story on the BBC News website (eclipsing such non-stories as the abduction of tourists in northern Ethiopia and the murder of several Iraqi police by insurgents) But even that is not the reason for my real interest.

No, that's not what really interests me. It's the last paragraph:

The videotape also shows a man in a Superman costume walking around the car, but he did not stop to help the driver or any of the victims. His identity is unknown.

Aside from the sheer randomness (always a plus, in my book) it's the implied accusation here which makes me wonder if there is any hope left for modern journalism in the Internet age. Since, apparently, not only is it relevant to tell us that there was a man dressed as Superman in a story about eleven people being injured by a driving accident, but it is important to note that the mystery man wasn't actually Superman because he didn't help anyone out. And that this revelation is more important than reporting the actual incident; since that's what the article's concluding paragrpah is solely concerned with.

There are two conclusions to be drawn from this: (1) The BBC is implying that people who dress in superhero costumes have some sort of implicit mandate and responcibility to be getting involved in world events. And that faliure to do so is a newsworthy event. Or (2) Clearly, the process of reportage from this incident was someone at the BBC finding this rather funny video on some sort of file sharing site and then playing 'say what you see' to create a news story around it.

BBC News were moaning and groaning about job cuts towards the end of last year. Stories like this do not, I feel, help their case. That said; it was a heck of a lot funnier than that Ethiopia story.