The mean streets of Lincoln

Some poor sod who got beaten up by a gang of blokes, and another lad who has had two motorbikes stolen, are both being used by the Lincolnshire Echo for a bit of sensationalism.

In the first story, which has the headline ‘Attack victim says city is no longer safe’,  the angle is based around the victim’s claim:

You can’t really walk around Lincoln town centre at night on your own nowadays…

…It’s even getting bad in the day time now

Whilst undoubtedly this guy has suffered at the hands of some mindless oiks, he’s making a completely anecdotal-based assumption about Lincoln. Lincolnshire Police said:

Whilst it is one of the safest places in the country we do still have some problems from time to time, and this is an example of it.

If the Lincolnshire Echo were being sensible about it, they’d have gone with the angle of Lincoln being a safe place to live, in spite of a recent attack. But I suppose that doesn’t sell papers. But let’s not let truth get in the way of revenue.

Then there’s the second article, which is again led with an unsupported claim from a victim:

A college student has warned that bike thieves are out of control in Lincoln after two of his motorbikes were stolen.

Firstly, is he really saying that ‘bike thieves are out of control in Lincoln’? I mean, has he explicitly said this? Because his other comments on the article don’t say that. I’ll concede that the full story can only be read if you buy the Echo, which isn’t really looking like it’s worth bothering to do, but surely they’d have placed the relevant comments supporting the angle in the web version? Maybe bike theft is spiraling out of control in Lincoln, but I suspect not.

Sensationalising crime in Lincoln is a bit OTT – it’s not exactly LA. Cheap tricks to sell papers and cause a fuss are a part of the reason no-one trusts journalists.