I’m pleased to report Folkestone raced up the news agenda last week, although blink and you’d have missed it. An earthquake measuring a near news-worthy 2.8 ‘rocked’ the town on Tuesday March 3 and showed that papers love a good story regardless of the content.
Having survived the quake myself I can confirm it was hardly life or death stuff, so I’d like to know which earthquake in Folkestone The Sun was covering http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2289825.ece. Getting the adjective 'rocked' in the first few lines was followed with an interview conjuring up the delightful image of a builder desperately clinging to his scaffolding, life flashing before his eyes. I’d be keen to find out if he really exists. Perhaps he mixed up ‘Folkestone’ with ‘Tokyo’. Most of the other nationals barely touched it.
The local papers (Express and Herald) both led with the quake and were generally more restrained than the nation’s finest, even if the Herald’s assertion that ‘tens of thousands of residents were shocked and confused’ was maybe over-egging it. Both allowed space for the locals to say how scary/boring they had found the experience. The Express kicked off 2 pages of non-news coverage with the front page headline of ‘Did The Earth Move For You!’ resting awkwardly between a badly punctuated question and something Del Boy might say post-coital.
While in 2007 choppers and news crews came to town (and went as soon as it became apparent a few smashed chimney pots was as exciting as it was going to get), there was even less of photographic worth this time. Both local rags carried a map showing significant quakes occurring in 2009, 2007, 1950 and, err…1580 and 1382. Given the lack of news this time round, perhaps some local history would interest and inform the readers?
Sadly not. At least the Express gave the pre-1900 quakes four lines. Here is a more interesting graph you can annotate yourself.
Having survived the quake myself I can confirm it was hardly life or death stuff, so I’d like to know which earthquake in Folkestone The Sun was covering http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2289825.ece. Getting the adjective 'rocked' in the first few lines was followed with an interview conjuring up the delightful image of a builder desperately clinging to his scaffolding, life flashing before his eyes. I’d be keen to find out if he really exists. Perhaps he mixed up ‘Folkestone’ with ‘Tokyo’. Most of the other nationals barely touched it.
The local papers (Express and Herald) both led with the quake and were generally more restrained than the nation’s finest, even if the Herald’s assertion that ‘tens of thousands of residents were shocked and confused’ was maybe over-egging it. Both allowed space for the locals to say how scary/boring they had found the experience. The Express kicked off 2 pages of non-news coverage with the front page headline of ‘Did The Earth Move For You!’ resting awkwardly between a badly punctuated question and something Del Boy might say post-coital.
While in 2007 choppers and news crews came to town (and went as soon as it became apparent a few smashed chimney pots was as exciting as it was going to get), there was even less of photographic worth this time. Both local rags carried a map showing significant quakes occurring in 2009, 2007, 1950 and, err…1580 and 1382. Given the lack of news this time round, perhaps some local history would interest and inform the readers?
Sadly not. At least the Express gave the pre-1900 quakes four lines. Here is a more interesting graph you can annotate yourself.The seismic graph which featured in both papers gave The Herald captioning team a bit of a headache, as it looked like one of several irrelevant pics from 2007 pressed into action. Perhaps just putting a picture of a real 
earthquake from some other place and some other time would have conveyed as much real information and been more interesting to look at? Later in the paper The Herald’s 'irreverent' Martello column gleefully mocked mere mortals who proposed stories to the newsdesk in less than perfect English. Keen readers would have already noted that on page 2 (opposite the caption cock up) an interview with Sainsbury’s staff who have recorded a song for Comic Relief revealed they had ‘worked in [sic] Christopher Biggins’. Perhaps Martello should spend more time checking the pages before they go to print. Pip pip!
earthquake from some other place and some other time would have conveyed as much real information and been more interesting to look at? Later in the paper The Herald’s 'irreverent' Martello column gleefully mocked mere mortals who proposed stories to the newsdesk in less than perfect English. Keen readers would have already noted that on page 2 (opposite the caption cock up) an interview with Sainsbury’s staff who have recorded a song for Comic Relief revealed they had ‘worked in [sic] Christopher Biggins’. Perhaps Martello should spend more time checking the pages before they go to print. Pip pip! 
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