Wednesday, September 12, 2007

A HMMWV, a tank, or what?

Bored, I was looking through the August 20, 2007 edition of TIME magazine. When I opened to page 29, I found this picture and this caption:

Urban combat
A Mexican army tank patrols near a church in San Pedro, an affluent suburb of Monterrey. Once considered one of Mexico’s safest cities, Monterrey has witnessed more than 100 drug-related murders in the past year [sic]”

Again, I wonder what editors get paid to do at magazines. They obviously don't hire fact-checkers or even proof-readers for that matter. There are two mistakes in the caption:

1. There's a period missing from the second sentence.

2. That isn't a tank that we see in the picture, that's a HMMWV, the military version of the Hummer H1. And, though I am no expect, it doesn't even look like an armored HMMWV (the printed picture is a little clearly and more detail is visible) which means its skin is just a thin as any other automobile as certainly is NOT a tank.

Also interesting was the caption found online for the photograph:

Armed
The Mexican military patrols San Pedro, a rich neighborhood in Monterrey. This unit is stationed not far from a church where a wedding ceremony for members of a wealthy family was taking place.”

Notice that the new caption has only a little resemblance for the original.

Again, I think I could be a good fact-checker. Anyone hiring?

No comments: