Thread by @steffanwatkins

It would be swell if @JohnMooneyST
influenced his editors to correct the headline at least. No #RuAF 🇷🇺 aircraft were in Irish airspace at any time. That's misinformation at best, #disinformation at worst; they were in international airspace the whole time thetimes.co.uk/article/concer…

Journalists are regularly fed bad info by their trusted sources who want to mislead them and spin the story, so I can hardly blame @JohnMooneyST who did his due diligence. The Flight Information Region #FIR is the correct term, the international airspace controlled by Irish ATC.

Sovereign Irish airspace extends 12 Nautical Miles out to sea, the flight information region #FIR extends hundreds of miles out to sea. #NORAD is much more diligent in explaining that difference, as they do in the linked PDF below, from a few years back.

northcom.mil/Portals/28/Doc…

Nope. I have no idea why Twitter won't let you get to a PDF on the NORAD site.

google.com/url?sa=t&sourc…

Point being, this is a frequent mistake that is made by journalists, as well as intentionally fed to journalists, but I think it's worst in the UK press, which seem to get it wrong most often. I presume it's the same sources who are deliberately misleading reputable journalists.

What's the over-under for the article to be corrected so it's accurate and truthful?

https://twitter.com/steffanwatkins/status/1401911160962703367?s=19

Is The Times UK incapable of correcting the article? Didn't they write it?

https://twitter.com/steffanwatkins/status/1401893630474924035?s=19

I don't think I'm being unreasonable. Everyone should demand accuracy in journalism, especially journalists.

https://twitter.com/steffanwatkins/status/1401924110465253376?s=19

The Times UK went to press with #misinformation, and made no corrections despite repeated attempts to contact the journalist, editor, and peers. Since no corrections were made, this article has become an example of #disinformation in the media.

Comparing the little purple line shown on OpenStreetMaps (which is an unofficial source - but matches the sovereign territory of the countries shown) with the Flight Information Regions, shows you the difference between sovereign airspace, and the FIR.

eurocontrol.int/publication/fl…

The RAF published this fantastic explainer in September 2020 regarding a QRA intercept, and I hope they publish this kind of content more often, it's really informative, and uses all the right terms, because they're the RAF, and they're careful about that.

https://twitter.com/RAFLossiemouth/status/1306650142980923394?s=20

In March of 2020 Simon Carswell correctly reported the story, using the right terminology, but his editor clickbaited the headline, making it sensational and inaccurate, at best misinformation, but made no attempt to correct it. Is this endemic to Ireland?

https://twitter.com/steffanwatkins/status/1240219291460476928?s=20

Here is a direct quote from the British MoD specifically on this topic, take it all in.

https://twitter.com/steffanwatkins/status/1003976217777852417?s=19

Here you see the dramatic *decrease* in RuAF intercepts in 2017, over the previous ten years. I bet you don't remember that being reported on, because it wasn't.

https://twitter.com/steffanwatkins/status/1003978806389084160?s=19

Journalists in the UK (or anywhere) can request this sort of information and bypass the spin they're routinely fed.
They just have to ask.