Ford v Ferrari

The Associated Press needs to find someone who knows a little more about motorsport.  I saw this in the newspaper today.  

Bale, Damon team up for F1 movie

Christian Bale remembers hunkering down in front of a TV set with his father to watch Formula One races, back in the glory days of Alain Prost, Jacques Laffite and Nelson Piquet. They even went to Brands Hatch before F1 left the circuit near Kent, England. So the actor who’s been behind the wheel of the Bat-mobile read a script about the infamous 1966 showdown between Ford and Ferrari at Le Mans, the racing aficionado jumped onboard. And when Matt Damon learned that Bale was already circling the project, the actor — no stranger to high-speed car chases from his Jason Bourne films — likewise jumped at the opportunity. The result is “Ford v Ferrari,” a film that comes out later this year focusing not only on the American manufacturers’ unlikely upset of the Italian juggernaut but on those who made it happen. Meanwhile, the leading men waved the green flag over the 103rd running of the Indy 500 on Sunday

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Well, that's a recipie for disaster... 

Instead, I think I'll just re-watch "The Return" or "The 24 Hour War"... or maybe both! 

I was pointing out the part where the AP call it an F1 movie.  Last time I checked, the 24 Hours of Le Mans wasn't Formula 1...

Like I said... recipie for disaster. 

The headline writers are rarely the same as the person who writes the article. You guys are making a big fuss over what one underpaid editor whipped out in the minute or so that he probably had to come up with something.

Gentlemen, cherish these moments. As of right now, we belong to such a pointy end of a stick that we are not targeted by idiocy and drivel. Try being part of a different hobby, a more popular one. Youll see what I mean. Constantly inundated by imitation, false adverts, and incoherent/inconsistent news reports. 

Until that happens, racing is still unaffected.  

I'm not making a big fuss, I'm just pointing out an editing error (and this one is pretty minor as far as newspaper editing goes these days.)

In reply to stuart in mn :

I think the push for accuracy in reporting has been going downhill for decades.

There’s a serious lack of pride or something. I couldn’t care less that the subject isn’t enormously popular or a household name.

If you can’t get the name of the subject of your article right then maybe you should deliver the paper instead of writing articles in it.

Like Kreb said, I suspect it comes down to low budgets and schedules; the papers don't have the money to pay their editors, plus they're under the gun to get stuff out the door ASAP, so mistakes are made.  Still, I wish there was more effort put into accuracy, as well as spelling, syntax and grammar.

The thing to take away from it is this:

Read the article about something you already know about, and think about how many errors there are in it.  Now assume that every article about some subject on which you are NOT an expert has the same number of errors.

stuart in mn said:

Like Kreb said, I suspect it comes down to low budgets and schedules; the papers don't have the money to pay their editors, plus they're under the gun to get stuff out the door ASAP, so mistakes are made.  Still, I wish there was more effort put into accuracy, as well as spelling, syntax and grammar.

 I briefly worked as a copy editor at a fairly prominent paper after college. Reduced circulation of print media leads to reduced revenues and, thus, reduced staff. The people that are hired to catch these mistakes (editorial assistants and copy editors) are the first to get the axe when times are tough. 

codrus said:

The thing to take away from it is this:

Read the article about something you already know about, and think about how many errors there are in it.  Now assume that every article about some subject on which you are NOT an expert has the same number of errors.

 

Wow, I’m not sure I wanted to think about that.

codrus said:

The thing to take away from it is this:

Read the article about something you already know about, and think about how many errors there are in it.  Now assume that every article about some subject on which you are NOT an expert has the same number of errors.

 

I noticed a few decades ago that every single article that I had direct knowledge of had some mistake.  I then assumed that all the articles that I didn't have direct knowledge of had the same level of mistakes.

Also, I think these days that the headlines are being written by AI Minions in the Hybrid Cloud.

...read a script about the infamous 1966 showdown between Ford and Ferrari at Le Mans...

It doesn't say the movie is about F1 racing, it only says he watched F1 racing as a kid. 

llysgennad said:

...read a script about the infamous 1966 showdown between Ford and Ferrari at Le Mans...

It doesn't say the movie is about F1 racing, it only says he watched F1 racing as a kid. 

That's what I got too. He watched racing growing up, which made him want to be in a movie about racing.

They're not calling it an F1 movie, they're just trying to draw tenuous links to give the movie some credibility. It's marketing drivel.

llysgennad said:

...read a script about the infamous 1966 showdown between Ford and Ferrari at Le Mans...

It doesn't say the movie is about F1 racing, it only says he watched F1 racing as a kid. 

OK, I stand corrected. The title clearly says it is going to be an F1 movie. The story itself does not.

stuart in mn said:

Bale, Damon team up for F1 movie

Apparently, reading comprehension is a problem here as well.  

If memory serves me correctly, this is optioned from the book "Go Like Hell", which was also the inspiration for "The 24 Hour War" documentary.  Both recommended reading/viewing.