While a news story should always correctly answer the curiosity of readers about the who, what, when, how and why, they can get especially irritated if the where is wrong.
The slightest error about local geography can prompt a flurry of complaints. Often there are nuances about which street is in, say, the hypothetical town of Seaville and which in its dock area, Seaport, that only locals can discern.
A distant journalist at a newspaper office in London, with only an online map for guidance and a deadline five minutes away, can be on a hiding to nothing.
So some geographical faux pas are more understandable than others. This recent example, openly confessed by the Guardian, is particularly bizarre.
St Pancras station is only six minutes' walk from the newspaper's office, which is just over the London borough border at Kings Place, in Islington. I think. At least, according to the red dotted line on Google Maps.
The slightest error about local geography can prompt a flurry of complaints. Often there are nuances about which street is in, say, the hypothetical town of Seaville and which in its dock area, Seaport, that only locals can discern.
A distant journalist at a newspaper office in London, with only an online map for guidance and a deadline five minutes away, can be on a hiding to nothing.
So some geographical faux pas are more understandable than others. This recent example, openly confessed by the Guardian, is particularly bizarre.
St Pancras station is only six minutes' walk from the newspaper's office, which is just over the London borough border at Kings Place, in Islington. I think. At least, according to the red dotted line on Google Maps.
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