Lesson 27: Unit 54 THE NEWS

Lesson 27: Unit 54 THE NEWS

David: Today we look at the news.

Kevin: And how it’s reported on television and radio.

Natalie: And we talked to this woman, Carol Walker, who is a news reporter on British television.

David: Good evening. Here is the news. Today the president said that he was very pleased with the economic situation. Princess Bettina insisted that she had no plans to marry. And the coach of the US basketball team admitted that he felt very disappointed with last night’s result.

Those were news reports about the president, a princess and the coach of the US basketball team. What did those people actually say and how did I report it.

I am very pleased…	He said that he was very pleased…
I have no plans to marry.	She insisted that she had no plans to marry.
I feel very disappointed.	He admitted that he felt very disappointed.

Natalie: How do you get your news? From television,radio or newspapers?

1.    I get my news from newspapers and the television.

2.    I listen to the radio in the morning and the evening.

3.    I get my news basically from the radio. I don’t watch a lot of television and I don’t have time to read the newspaper.

4.    I get my news via satellite television.

5.    I get my news by watching the television news each day.

MONSTER NEWS

Reporter: Hi, welcome the Monster News. Today I’m going to talk to one of the most famous monsters in the world. Hi, I’m Edwina Doom from Monster News. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions? Do you have any plans to make a new film? Who is your new girlfriend? And why don’t you like answering questions?

Monster: Did you want to ask many questions?

She asked him if he had any plans…

She asked him who his new girlfriend was.

She asked him why he didn’t like…

Carole Walker. TV news reporter.

Basically the way we normally work is I’ll go out with a camera crew to film interviews street scenes pictures of the disaster pictures of people shooting at one another, whatever it may be we take the pictures back and I’ll work with an editor and record my voice track the editor will put together the pictures. Perhaps an excerpt of an interview and that basic process is the same whether I’m reporting on a British Rail story in London or a war anywhere overseas.

The difficulties of the job vary according to what the story is and where the story is often it’s a case of battling against the authorities who don’t want you to find out what you want to find out.

I think that to avoid bias what you have to do is to stand back a little bit; to try to approach everything that anybody says to you with a certain degree of skepticism; and to try, wherever possible, to check it out and to get the other point of view; and not to necessarily believe everything people tell you… To always be aware that they may very well have a hidden agenda behind what they’re telling you; and they may be exaggerating something for political reasons.

Workers at the site of the crash found the flight data recorder buried beneath the collapsed concrete of the apartment block. The cargo plane’s full load of fuel kept the huge fire burning here for three hours. The flight data recorder is designed to withstand only about half an hour of intense heat.

Air traffic controllers have ready given crash investigators some details of that final flight, number LY1862, which lasted less than 15 minutes. At six thousand feet as it headed out along the coast, the Israeli pilot put out a mayday call, reporting fire in the number three engine.

Air traffic controllers advised the El Al pilot to head for Schiphol’s main runway, where a strong headwind might have helped him. Instead, he went for the closest runway where a tailwind made his task more difficult.

Workers at the site of the crash found the flight data recorder buried beneath the collapsed concrete.

We had heard that the flight data recorder had been found.	He told me the advice he had given to the pilot.
He advised the pilot to head for the main runway.

The cargo plane’s full load of fuel kept the huge fire burning here for three hours. The flight data recorder is designed to withstand only about half an hours of intense heat.

We had heard from firemen at the scene of the crash that the flight data recorder had been found, and the Dutch Aviation Authority subsequently confirmed that. These pictures show the El Al cargo plane arriving at Schiphol shortly before its last ill-fated flight. An airport spokesman has confirmed that in July it had a fire in the number two engine. Emergency services were alerted as it landed here on three engines. But the fire was put out by the plane’s own extinguishers. One senior Dutch air traffic controller had plotted the entire route of the plane. He was able to tell me at exactly what time the pilot had maydayed the emergency. He told me exactly the advice he’d given to the pilot. He told me what the pilot had done to try to overt the crash. And he told me why the plane had actually crashed where it had.

The mayor gave a press conference and we asked why, for example, initially the death toll had been put in excess of 200 (It was later revised to bout 80). And the mayor said that it was because it was very difficult to have accurate records in that area where there was a large and partly illegal immigrant community.

Carole Walker: I enjoy the unpredictability of it… I enjoy the fact that even if I’m having a rather boring day in the office, things can happen very suddenly and I can be travelling somewhere half way round the world… You get, if you like, a front row seat on events which are shaping history…And a chance to actually be there when those events are happening… And a talk to the people who are making history is an extraordinary opportunity.

…front row seat…

…world events of enormous importance…

…people who are making history…