I see this sort of thing as someone editing a quote, censoring out the original, it appears a lot, saying the authorities said this when they’ve edited it to remove the metric unit and substituted their interpretation. I wrote to the journalist on the New Zealand piece and she said she sent it to the Washington Post as a social distance of 2 m. Someone in Washington changed it, which did not match what the New Zealand authorities stated. If they want feet put in the original unit. But don’t change the distance.
The BBC has a real mess of editorial guidlines. They have some very good documentaries with different units in the same sentence. They just don’t seem to realize the rest of the English speaking world (excepting the USA) no longer use the old units. Mike Payne > On 10 May 2020, at 18:13, Martin Vlietstra <[email protected]> wrote: > > The Washington Post should be careful about such approximations. > > In the United Kingdom, demonstrations that are held within one kilometre of > Parliament require special permission from the Police. The BBC website often > report this distance as “half a mile”. When I write to them to warn them of > what could be an embarrassment to them, they quickly change their report: > the distance from Nelson’s column (on Trafalgar Square) to Big Ben (on the > Houses of Parliament) is about 900 metres (more than half a mile but less > than one kilometre) so they would look very silly if somebody who was > arrested for demonstrating without appropriate permission at Trafalgar Square > produced the BBC report as a defence. > > From: USMA [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael > Payne > Sent: 10 May 2020 07:18 > To: USMA List Server > Subject: [USMA 1361] Sent this morning to the Washington Post > > Hello, > > I wrote to the Washington Post around the 7th April 2020 regarding your > changing the social distancing from 2 metres to 6 feet in an article on New > Zealand (This now becomes Fake News). Now I see you've censored the article > Over 1,000 queue for food in Geneva by changing 1 kilometer to more than half > a mile in the original Reuters article. > https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fnation%2F2020%2F05%2F09%2Fcoronavirus-update-us%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C29a603c214104552430e08d7f51d330f%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637247378076590378&sdata=5mcfudBAN1Txc8hC7J5c3MadS3ZXewkDB%2FYRFvbDSrg%3D&reserved=0 > > <https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fnation%2F2020%2F05%2F09%2Fcoronavirus-update-us%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C29a603c214104552430e08d7f51d330f%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637247378076590378&sdata=5mcfudBAN1Txc8hC7J5c3MadS3ZXewkDB%2FYRFvbDSrg%3D&reserved=0> > I subscribe to the Washington Post, I understand the United States does not > use metric units in everyday life, but I refuse to condone your censoring > stories from elsewhere to match your Style Guide, which is obviously out of > date. > I know Hospitals in the United States use kilograms and Celsius for all > patients. All Pilots and Air Traffic controllers in the United States use > Celsius only for temperature at every airport in the United States. Every > mechanic who works on a car or airplane uses millimeters because that's what > size all the bolts and clearances are. I could go on, many many people in the > United States understand and use the metric system every day, except the > Washington Post ! > I believe in supporting good journalism, but I'm not going to put up with > your censoring articles to omit the units I prefer. > I've cancelling my subscription which renews the 25 May.
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