I get the ACE newsletter each month or two and I found this abstract interesting:

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Not all publicity is good publicity
Some may remember the BBC news piece about fitting Nitrous Oxide to road cars and how the AA thought it was so dangerous that it should be banned.

Without going too deeply into what a badly researched and formulated piece of ‘News’ reportage it was, we had a mail from Edmund King, president of the AA on the morning that the report went out, distancing themselves from the report and the stance it appeared to show the AA taking.

The full mail was published on the website, but this is a very small snippet.

“The comment we made is that some inexperienced new drivers may be putting themselves and others at risk by driving cars that they are not able to handle. An inexperienced driver will be at risk in any car but if that car is modified to go faster then the risk is greater...the driver is pushed beyond their limitations and the car might be.”

We also contacted Trevor Langfield, who was interviewed in the report, for his opinion on how he was portrayed in the piece.

He said: A few weeks ago I was contacted by a journalist from the BBC and asked if I had any ideas about how they might present a ‘piece’ on nitrous oxide for a BBC radio program. At that time he may have mentioned it was for a ‘news’ piece but as far as I remember, he just mentioned that he needed an ‘angle’ that made it new and interesting.

I suggested a few very positive ideas but those weren’t met with any interest and although I can’t remember exactly how it came about I was ‘directed’ towards coming up with something more dramatic.
Unfortunately I then mentioned that in Norway and Greece, nitrous had been banned due to ignorance, as a knee jerk reaction to single incidents (which lead to deaths) in each country, where it was ‘claimed’ that nitrous was responsible. I then went on to suggest that he could do a ‘piece’ about nitrous use in the UK and how I could put forward a good case supporting its use (based on my 30+ years experience on the subject) to prevent the same thing happening here.

However, as is the way with ‘News’ based stories, the journalist took a part of what Trevor said and used it to bolster his claim that Nitrous was a dangerous product that ‘Boy Racers’ were bolting to their vehicles and using them to terrorise innocent British road users.

The report also contained some of the subliminal ‘Opinion Forming’ tricks which the media is so good at.

Trevor, who is one of the most experienced installers of Nitrous in the country and has run Wizard of NOS for over 30 years, was described in the report as ‘A Mechanic’, neatly undermining the importance of what he may have had to say.
The journalist was taken on a ride in a modified car up to a speed of 100mph and, on stepping out of the car stated that "This was on a private test track", suggesting that the vehicle concerned was not a road vehicle.

We contacted both the BBC News Department that made the report and the Journalist concerned, but they have not responded to our requests for a comment.

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Good to hear 'the other side' for a change. Not that we believe all we read, but I for one tend to think the bbc is above such gutter journalism. Obviously not.

quote:

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Originally posted by balidey
but I for one tend to think the bbc is above such gutter journalism. Obviously not.

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Its just the UK in general. Media and politicians tend to blame symptoms of problems not the cause. Clearly inexperienced drivers killing themselves is an issue about correct training, better quality of driving and improved testing and not an issue of NOS.

But tackling the cause is too much trouble so lets blame something else.

Personally I think engine power should be restricted for new drivers, in the same way it is on motorbikes.

You just end up peddaling harder IMO.

My first car was under 100bhp/tonne by a margin and I still drove it on the limit everywhere!

you could limit speed by having a variable rev limiter in each gear, but then someone would clip it mid bend and end up in the foliage.

Sadly improvement has to come from better training and a more responsible attitude (something lacking in the UK as a whole)

I remember watching that article and thinking that the use of nitrous is temporary and they're making out like it's used all the time like petrol, like kids are charging around in 300 bhp corsas due to a £100 fitment

Journalists.....

They NEVER let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Politicians.......
All twisters / benders of the truth.

When they aint kissing your baby, they are stealing its candy