The Herald’s Martin Williams should know the difference between ‘news’ and history.
Today he has:
CalMac defends record in wake of ‘spiralling’ ferry cancellations. Ferry operator CalMac has defended its record after new figures revealed “spiralling” cancellations impacting lifeline ferry services to island communities.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23750458.calmac-defends-record-wake-spiralling-ferry-cancellations/?ref=ebln&nid=1220&u=54f15f1382a35160f5f9fbd9de82faff&date=280823
Non-weather related cancellations fell from a peak of 5,805 in 2021-22, to 4,620 in 2022-23.
If Williams were reporting last year at this time he might reasonably point to an increase. That would be ‘the news’ last year but it’s not now because ‘the news’ is that they’re fallen by more than 20%.
Also, ‘the news’ this year or any other requires that data is contextualised.
4,620 sailings cancelled for reasons not related to the weather in 2022-23 represents only 2.8% of the total of more than 160 000 sailings to 50 different places by 33 vessels so reliability is around 97%.
97%? How can that be threat to lifeline services? Urgent medical cases are helicoptered off regardless of ferry availability. Shops that sell perishable goods have refrigeration. They’re surrounded by waters full of fish and other prized food. Important meetings can be held online as they are for many on the mainland anyway. The crime rate on the islands is way below that elsewhere but they still have police officers with their own boats.
Really?
In the words of the philosopher Dylan Moran,
‘Do something useful with your life!’
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Are journalists not taught that words have meaning and that we have a range of words to express nuances? We also have figures of speech, such as metaphors. But for a metaphor to be effective it must enable the listener or reader to visualise something ‘it is like’.
‘Spiralling out of control’ came into prominence with aviation and, in the early days, if there was a fault with the steering and/or an engine, the rotary motion of the propellor produced an equal but opposite rotary motion in the rest of the aeroplane, and it lost height and fell towards the ground, while rotating. Hence the metaphor. A key point to note is that spiralling out of control implied a DOWNWARD trajectory.
In these days of few air crashes and most planes being jet propelled, how many people actually connect the metaphor with the action? For those of us brought up on Biggles and the Battle of Britain, the metaphor was understandable.
Since the ‘journalist’ is seeking to imply that ferry cancellations are increasing, then, perhaps he ought to have used a metaphor which implied rising, such as ‘soaring’ or ‘rocketing’, but, given the data, both would be hyperbole.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Or, as the auld wiseman atop Goatfell might advise; GTF!
LikeLike
The headline today in the Irish Times is
“Dozens of flights to and from Ireland delayed, cancelled due to UK air traffic control issues “
Nothing on BBC Scotland about it , nothing on BBC about it anywhere , nothing in the newspapers either.
Plenty of lies about late ferries though
LikeLiked by 2 people
I wonder when the “spiralling” articles, via the MSM, about Ferries in Scotland are finally going to reach a plateau and then eventually ‘cease and desist’ …..I would hazard a guess that post the next GE they will level off…..in both their frequency and also in their prominence that they currently SEEM to be regarded, by both the MSM and the opposition…..in fact you may , in the future, be hard pushed to find ANY Ferry related story…that is once they, who currently obsess on this, assume their job is done….which is, as a job, primarily one where they are trying to ensure that support and votes for the SNP is greatly reduced , or rather so diminished , that all threats to their UK is then also assumed to be then greatly reduced too…..
I am not diminishing the importance for those who rely upon Ferries….but perhaps some people outwith Scotland may (wrongly) assume . given the length of exposure and the forensic analysis covering different aspects of this mode of transport via the media, that all Scots use this service throughout Scotland on a day to day basis……what time is it again that the Ferry from Glasgow to Edinburgh leaves ?……I mean Ferries are the ONLY real mode of transport in Scotland apparently….or rather they must appear to be to others…… that is if you are one who does not live here in Scotland and also knows nowt about Scotland……but is made aware of this media obsession on Ferries in Scotland via your own media…as in where YOU are …as in NOT here…in Scotland….. but elsewhere.
Of course, to be fair to the media and the opposition parties, there is nothing else really significant that we are all having to encounter in our day to day lives as UK citizens just now….as we all luxuriate with having so much disposable income to spend as we will…..food is cheap, clothes are cheap, energy costs lowest I have seen in my lifetime, rents are low, mortgages are low, an abundance of housing available, highest benefits and pensions paid in the World (and for women no change to state pension age so you get it when you are 60) , we can travel freely in Europe and if we wish we can even live and work there too, we also have a caring and considerate UK government who adopt polices to help the ‘ordinary’ people like us in our day to day lives BUT we are also spoilt for choice as we have an alternate choice to vote for via the UK official opposition party who never lower themselves in playing politics to gain a political advantage at the expense of another party…. especially in Scotland………so I guess the MSM must rely upon the Ferry stories…as what the Hell else is there within the UK to promote as ultra significant as news stories that impacts us as Scots…….come on it has to be FERRIES as there is NOWT else that we are having to live through in the UK that impacts us Scots to the extent that the FERRY story effects us ALL….thus that is why it seen by the media as worth their continuous reporting on…..via old and new aspects…..
( BTW in case in doubt…the last paragraph WAS sarcasm…to drive home the point that FERRIES as the only STORY in Town (so to speak) via the media and opposition against the reality of the REAL S*** (rhymes with PIT) that we are all HAVING to live through ( as UK citizens) but NOT via the actions of the Scottish government but via those who are the OTHER one (UK government) and too their official opposition…..but the media, as per, have demoted all of THAT news to minor incidents not worth THEM obsessing about on a recurrent basis….for reasons all too obvious….and thus too apparent to us on here and t’other likeminded individuals outwith this site too……
LikeLike