Factual Discrepancies In Reporting Pattaya News

I'm not a news reporter. When it comes to putting Pattaya news on my blog, I just read what other people have taken the time to find out, and then give a quick summary here, and some comment about why I think it is noteworthy. Therefore, when something is reported incorrectly by the actual reporters, it goes unfiltered and uncorrected directly onto my blog. I don't like it when it happens, but everybody makes mistakes and before now I've let them slide.

However, recently the several news outfits who research and report the news here in Pattaya have had a stretch of really poor reporting. Yesterday, I linked to a news article about how Polo AGoGo's Russian dancers were arrested for dancing in their bikinis. The problem is that it was Galaxy AGoGo that has the Russian dancers, not Polo: One of the principal facts regarding the story was completely incorrect. How could a reporter sent to research and report on a story get something as fundamental as "where the story took place" wrong?

I wasn't going to bother writing about this problem until this morning, when I noticed this story, reported from two different local news organizations (and neither one was the organization that reported about Polo AGogGo, therefore bringing it to a total of 3 news companies making me go hmmm over their recent news stores): A cow was stolen from a field, and dumped in the middle of a road by the thives when they got desperate. One organization reports the cow was an "American Brahmin" which was stolen, put in the back of a pickup truck, and driven away:

"The owner saw what happened and followed the thieves at a discreet distance while telephoning police with his bizarre story. The thieves realized they were being followed and stopped their vehicle in Soi Nong Yai in north Pattaya. Here they pushed the poor animal out of the pick up and sped off into the night. When police arrived the cow looked decidedly non-plussed by the whole affair..."

The second organization reports the cow was a "Hindubrasil cow" which was shocked with a stun gun, put into the back of a truck and driven away.

"The police discovered that the thieves and the cow were on Sukhumvit Road heading for Chonburi. It wasn’t long when the police caught up with them in Soi Nongprue near the Crocodile Farm. When the thieves saw the police they decided to drop the cow off the truck near the railway track and fled. The police assisted the frightened cow which had been tied up with a rope and was bleeding from the wounds and scratches from being thrown off the truck and then contacted the owner."

How can two different reporters come up with such vastly different stories?

One story has has the owner trailing the culprits at a distance on Soi Nong Yai, with the police catching up later. The other one the police advancing on the culprits on Soi Nongprue, with the owner catching up later. Are the reporters just making things up? Are people lying to them? I really have no idea... but it seems that these news reporters are pretty much as clueless as I am as to what the actual facts are.

So anyway, take this post as my caveat emptor about the news I report on here in Pattaya. Whatever you read here might wind up being a cow of a different color. If you do see reporting on my blog that is factually incorrect, I always appreciate being given the proper information, so by all means leave a comment.