Attraction Source Forum

Hi all,

Me and my family are massive alton towers fans and go around 20-30 times a season.
Ever since the smiler incident I have become more and more frustrated with the media.
Every minor incident is plastered all over news articles as if someone has been injured! (I appreciate the smiler incident was a terrible one, IMO merlin have handled the situation superbly but the media seem to be obsessive in destroying their reputation further)

Today I have read an article regarding a couple stranded on thirteen and had to be evacuated............REALLY !!?? this is headline news?
The media now really need to get a life as they are getting on my nerves big time. This couple are obviously after some compensation from the pics they weren't even that far up the lift hill!

Gutted that alton towers is being treated in such a way. I just hope in time that they are given some breathing space however can't see it being soon as media will be all over it until smiler reopens/closes for good? Which could be a significant amount of time.

What are other people's thoughts? I am sick of the media...........!!

Thanks
Simon

I have long been sick of the media, ever since about 2 days after the incident. The mirror in particular are terrible for doing this, they make everything minor sound like someone has died, then repeat whole smiler situation again. Example "Couple stuck on th13teen ride at Alton Towers just 7 weeks after horrific smiler crash". 7 weeks is just daft, they need to stop reporting things

Agreed. The Mirror especially is just dragging the story out. It would be better for all involved if they just shut up and moved on. Not only is it pathetic, it is desperate. This isn't news. It's a tabloid trying to shock people and ruin parks reputations.

Thankfully they didn't pick up on the death at SFMM recently, they would have used that against all theme parks...

No matter what it is (a theme park, a person etc) soon as a tabloid paper takes a disliking to them they are relentless in the negative reports they give. This is why I don't read them, they hardly ever report actual news. I was joking that with all this negative reports they were getting that the next report would be "horror as toddler trips over running in the park". That was how ridiculous the reports were getting. I agree with NemesisRider they need to move on and let the people who were affected by The Smiler incident recover without having the almost weekly reminder of what happened.

Unfortunately for the towers.......I don't think this will end until the final decision has been made on the smiler.
Presuming that it will re-open, they will closely monitor the situation for another month or two before they get bored. I just hope if they do re-open smiler it has no future issues and by issues I mean wheels coming off on lift hill etc not breakdowns.
As media will be all over them like a rash.
#reopensmiler

And look who they're targeting now...

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ju ... me-6138489" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ITS NOT NEWS, and it doesn't include the discounts that 80% of customers use or something, and uses the cheapest holiday they could find in France. Stupid mirror

The Mirror do seem take some sort of personal grudge against Merlin as the finance article was basically based purely on the pricing of Merlin Theme Parks. I understand that a major incident will have a chain reaction in terms of negative news reporting against the park, however I'm sure everybody can agree that this is a continuing personal attack on Merlin. Despite this, Alton Towers and Merlin Entertainments have given intelligent and re-assuring statements to newspapers in every report ,and therefore you cant deny how well Merlin handle any negative press.

Unfortunately in today's generation anybody will do anything to gain the slightest bit of attention and therefore visitors to the park will continue to over sensationalise small incidents to gain their five seconds of fame.

This is obviously very frustrating, however we just need to continue to focus on the positive developments and continue to show our support for Alton Towers. If we do this, I am sure the park will eventually overcome all the fabricated news headlines and rightfully re-claim its title as The Uk's number one family theme park.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/al ... le-6135379" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am sick at bloody tired of the mirror

homer22422 wrote:http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/al ... le-6135379

I am sick at bloody tired of the mirror

this is the biggest load of rubbish i've heard so far! i highly doubt that it would take an hour and a half in extreme circumstances! someone here is lying!

“We were all starting to get anxious, it was windy and uncomfortable with the safety bar digging into us and just sitting there we couldn’t help but think about the crash on the Smiler and worry about us shooting off unexpectedly or a carriage coming and crashing into us or something else horrible happening.”

Weren't they on the lift hill?? So physically impossible for another car to come along and crash into it? Some people....

Checking Google for Alton towers news it seems the mirror and some local papers picked it up. If you click the link to the source on the mirror article "hinkley times" (it's in red in the text) you can see how they copied it wholesale from there. You can also see the amazing comments from people who aren't impressed one bit by the whineyness of the couple.

As the mirror is the only major paper to run this none story it does feel like they have an agenda

xylyx wrote: As the mirror is the only major paper to run this none story it does feel like they have an agenda.

I agree xylyx, they are running so many many stupid stories it does feel like they are set on damaging Merlin's reputation. There is speculation that this is to damage brands (and The Sun) who use Merlin promotions, and I see that as very likely. Overall it's just disgraceful journalism.

In all honesty, if the Mirror are that hateful towards Alton Towers and Merlin, they need to be sent to the park and actually look how good the operations are. If they think Alton Towers are bad they should see Six Flags... I'm highly doubtful any of the reporters have been to Alton Towers.

Alton are going to face it for a long time when (if) the Smiler reopens, because they will go on and on about it reporting every 5 minute closure and finding a rider to talk about how they left the two hour queue because they feared death. Also if any other Merlin attraction had a slightly to serious incident then the whole Smiler situation will be dragged back up again.

Im now waiting for the distressed rider who left at 1pm because their rapids boat bumped into another! The horror that would cause....

Am I right in thinking that Oblivion and Nemesis are the only coaster on site to have not had an "issue"

I know that they have targeted
Sonic
Octonauts
Rita
Air
Obviously the Smiler
and 13 had had a lot of bashing.

I know that this wont do much but it is worth the try

Lets make a petition to the mirror so they can stop making such bogus stories

I also hate the fact that they show the actual victims of the smiler crash in every single news article that they post about alton towers. This is becoming outrageous

Despite all of these 'stories' coming from the Mirror (and the locals copying and pasting the stories onto their sites), and the eye-witnesses they're coming from, the GP are not all idiots, and I don't for a second believe that many people who would even want to visit AT would be lead up the garden path by these terribly slow-news-day headlines.
It is however, fairly easy for Merlin to issue press releases to the more reputable newspapers. Once the HSE comes back (hopefully clear!), I have no doubt Merlin will issue a single press release that will go to most, if not all major newspapers. Obviously they may not chose to print them, but if they do, it's illegal for them to change what is written in the statement. We'll hear it all from Merlin first hand. NV may also do some televised interviews, because of the sincerity hearing it spoken brings.
Merlin is the bigger man in this situation though, and not stooping to the Mirror's level sending out story after story to contradict the bad ones, it's not even worth the paper it would be written on.

homer22422 wrote:http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/al ... le-6135379

I am sick at bloody tired of the mirror

This is the exact article which made me start this topic.
Absolutely pathetic.......

To be honest, I think the mirror are doing everything they can, deliberately to damage the reputation of merlin' sparks. The thorpe thing isn't news, and it seems as if they want people to not go to merlin attractions.

It's outrageous, but I don't understand why people see it as a surprise. The printed media outlets all have agendas and bias, and will use their influence and power to their advantage at any given opportunity.

If you buy newspapers, you're contributing to the problem.

Personally, I'm trying to ignore papers like The Mirror because they are just a publication that isn't worth reading and instead stick to more trustworthy media like the BBC who don't tend to over sensationalise everything