INTERNET JOURNALISTS PIGGYBACKING COVERAGE ON THE MISSONI MYSTERY : INACCURATE HEADLINES : LAZY JOURNALISTS

LAZY JOURNALISTS PIGGYBACKING COVERAGE ON THE MISSONI MYSTERY : INACCURATE HEADLINES : UNTOLD STORY

By Christine Trzyna

Once in a while I get hooked on a news story and follow it closely. 

Recently I started reading everything I could find on the MISSONI MYSTERY.  

As a recap, on about January 3rd/4th 2013, a small plane carrying the so called "iconic" Vittorio Missoni and five others disappeared in a cloud not long after take-off from a resort island off the coast of Venezuela.   Missoni has been the world brand ambassador of this family owned Milan, Italy,  fashion house which began about a half century ago and has had great impact on the design of knits and fashion.  Though not inexpensive,  in the last year they made a deal with Target and the less expensive products were sold out so very quickly and started appearing on e-Bay for more than they were priced.  This is how well loved the designs the Missoni family makes are!

Not one article I read suggested that a fashion house enemy or perhaps the Italian Mafia were involved but I wondered.  When the children of the presumed dead began to reach out to (unnamed) enemies and Twitter for help to find their parents, I really wanted more story.  The idea of kidnapping was mentioned but hey, no mention of a ransom asked for. 

Cell phone "anomalies" indicated that calls were sent from cell phones that would be underwater unless the passengers and plane had been hijacked by drug dealers, which apparently happens a whole lot in the area. Venezuela denied this as a possibility. 

Just the cell phone anomaly story had me hooked and for days I watched the press for some explanation, which to this point I have not found.  I tried to research this myself.  How long can a cell phone withstand being underwater?  Friends said some models can work though they have fallen in a swimming pool or toilet, but not thousands of feet under the sea. 

I read dozens of articles that piggybacked on others, looking for the original source or the best source for information. 

Then began, it turns out an inaccurate report that the pilot was not licenced. Even when this proved to be untrue it continued to be reported.  I checked the publishing dates and there are a whole lot of so called journalists who should be ashamed of themselves.  Are these journalists even researching, asking questions, or just reading each others articles and using new, inaccurate words as well as information over and over again for a month now? 

The pilot was healthy, licenced, and well regarded in the area. 

A fellow pilot thought maybe a thunderbolt felled the plane!

In the last few days it was revealed that a sports bag was found a couple hundred miles away from where the search had centered.  It had been stowed away on the plane the Missoni party hired because there wasn't enough room on another plane.  Nowhere in the press have I read that this sports bag was empty, wet, full of sand, found on a beach.  The word ROCKS was used.  It was apparently in good enough condition that the German Tourist who found it took it home and contacted the owner because the name tag inside was still intact.  (Would you take home a soakinig wet empty bag?

Lazy journalists and HEADLINE WRITERS, started reporting this single sports bag as "Missoni Luggage" and "First Debris" of the plane!  I see no reason to speculate like that in a journalistic article.

In dozens of articles journalists are confused as to whether the woman Missoni was traveling with was his "Wife," "Life-Partner," or "Companion." Apparently their relationship is so secret dspite the international fame of Vittorio that journalists can't find a marriage license, church record, or ask the family, before publishing.


It is a MYSTERY as to why no bodies, no luggage, no  nothing - but the sports bag - has made its way up and over the sea after a month.  Theories are that the plane is so far down that it cannot be detected by the usual means and so the family, Italy, and Venezuela have sent a submarine to look around the sea floor. 

The sports bag found on rocks in good enough condition has lead the search to 200 miles away, perhaps the flotsam and jetsam moved with fast tides.

Meanwhile, as the show must go on, you can see the spring Missoni show that took place for Fashion Week in Milan recently on YouTube.  However, you will be very lucky to find any speculation in the press on what the Missoni family's plan is if, indeed Vittorio is dead.  I can understand, given the problems with the plane crash theory, the family is hesitating to be conclusive!

Meanwhile it is clear to me that in order to be FAST about POSTING AN ARTICLE / DEADLINE PRESSURE, accuracy is no longer a consideration!

C Christine Trzyna 2013  All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights.

BABY NAME BOOKS ARE INSPIRATIONAL FOR CHARACTERS

I love BABY NAME BOOKS! I like to browse through them - collect them ! That's because I'm inspired by names to develop characters.



Get this: In college I wrote a long story in which I made up a name for a character. It was an unusual name but felt right to me. In fact, it was as if this character, who I came to know well, was telling me what their name was, the way you hear some babies, before birth, whisper their name to their mothers or commuicate it silently as newborns. So I went with this character name. But in critique sessions in my writing workshop the professor and a couple students told me that the name was too unusual, that they got stuck on it while reading. Not good!



I tried, I really did, to find another name for this character. I questioned my motivations for naming this character something unusual. But then again, she was hardly an ordinary person. I was grateful that I could find and replace, using the computer, when the time came to change the name, but simply I never did find another name for the character and the manuscript remains in storage at this time.



Then recently I was looking through a baby name book and there it was - for the first time I had ever seen it in print - this unusual name I had used for the character!

C Christine Trzyna All Rights Reserved including International and Internet Rights