Duck boat

[Diaphone Jim]

Why do you suppose that nine out of ten news reports describe the Duckboat as capsizing when it didn't?
It plain old sank, never coming close to overturning.

[xoxoxoBruce]

You're fired Jim, we need writers to grab the public by the pussy and keep them hooked. You obviously can't cut it, you want to tell the truth. tsk tsk

[tw]

Originally Posted by Diaphone Jim

It plain old sank, never coming close to overturning.

Small boats like this have air pockets so that a swamped boat will still remain floating. Why do these boats not have floatation air pockets?

Why do you say it did not capsize when so many reports say otherwise? What is the source or reasoning for that conclusion?

[Undertoad]

Why do these boats not have floatation air pockets?

You guessed it: Boat in Deadly Missouri Sinking Was Designed by Entrepreneur With No Engineering Training, Court Records Show

Why do you say it did not capsize

He says it did not capsize because it did not capsize. Video of the event shows it staying upright and sinking. I won't include the video here, but you can easily find it, just as I did, by searching for "duck boat capsizing".

...when so many reports say otherwise?

Hence "The media"

It's offensive that we say "The media" like they operate as one single entity. But they certainly do, eh?

[Diaphone Jim]

I can't decide between how, as Bruce says, sensational and deadly "capsize" sounds and simple ignorance of the term.

During the gulf oil spill every report for months talked about "syphoning" the oil off the bottom.

[Undertoad]

At least more careful news sources like the NY Times will get this sort of thing right (pauses) won't they?

[glatt]

Do we know it didn't capsize? I've only see one video, and it cuts off before it goes completely underwater.

I'm glad I wasn't there.

[Diaphone Jim]

Not only do they use "capsizes" in the headline, they say "overturned" in the text!
I should have said 99 out of 100 news stories say capsized.
The video I can't get over is one that says "Video shows duckboat capsizing" when it shows it NOT capsizing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz1U27zbWXw

I am not a sailor, but photos of duckboats in and out of the water seem to show an very bottom-heavy craft, one not seemingly prone to overturning.

If anyone can find a video or photo showing the boat upside down, please post it.

[Happy Monkey]

My theory: original local reporter doesn't know the difference between capsize and sink. NY Times reporters (and others) essentially re-report local news. NY Times copy editor knows the meaning of the word, and changes an instance of capsize to overturn, to minimize repetition of the word.

[Undertoad]

and changes an instance of capsize to overturn, to minimize repetition of the word

Restating it differently strengthens the narrative that it occurred...! The story should probably say "it was reported that the boat capsized".

[Happy Monkey]

No argument there; too many people taking the last one's statements at face value without doing reporting of their own (or only doing additional reporting around the core story, but re-reporting the core as is). But if someone's doing punctuation, syntax, length, and style (copy editing, rather than editor-editing), they have no reason to think that the narrative that it occurred is suspect.



I am a bit sad at the comments on the YouTube video (not uncommon, I suppose), where people are pissed off that they don't get to see people dying; it's not enough to see it start to sink, and to know that they died. It's like going to a wake and loudly complaining that the buffet is sparse.

[tw]

All those videos cut off before the boat went down. I see it tilting to port as it was swamped. So it could have swamped and then capsized.

If it only swamped, then passengers could have jumped out of side windows. If it capsized as a swamped boat went down, then passengers could not side exit - may have been trapped.

Every video cuts off only during the swamping.

Plenty of questions await answers.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Diaphone Jim

I am not a sailor, but photos of duckboats in and out of the water seem to show an very bottom-heavy craft, one not seemingly prone to overturning.

A wave could tip it. Once underwater, if it's as bottom-heavy as it looks, it would probably right itself as it went to the bottom.

If anyone can find a video or photo showing the boat upside down, please post it.

Have any of the survivors weighed in on whether it capsized? News report word choice is probably the last thing on their minds, but it might have been mentioned in passing.

[Undertoad]

Hmmmm

CBS interview with survivor doesn't say. It could well have listed as it swamped, does that count?

[Gravdigr]

My theory is that current journalists, and, yes, I'm using that term very loosely, do not understand words. They think 'capsize' and 'sink' are the same things.

I've noticed that a lot of 'journalists' have trouble of using the proper preposition, also.