How Real Life Works: A primer for troofers

In the aftermath of the horrific Manchester bombing, we’ve watched with a combination of anger and bemusement as various troofers have attempted to “prove” that the bombing either didn’t really happen, that it was staged by the dark and mysterious Powers that Be, or that it was a “false flag” operation intended to divert attention from something else. What that “something else” might be is never specified. It’s just, you know, something “they” don’t want you to see. (Cue ominous music)

As a public service, we thought we’d take a few moments to go over some basic aspects of what we like to call “real life”. This concept may be unfamiliar to many troofers, who seem to have distanced themselves from the real world in favour of various rabbit holes which tend to lead precisely nowhere.

So for all you troofers out there, listen up. It’s time you learned how real life works.

‘But the MSM had all intell lined up for print less than 24 hours later…’

This question comes from Little Al in Newcastle, who seems puzzled about how print and electronic media really work. His pals Snedders and Sarah might want to check this out too.

All right, kiddies, pay attention.

Newspapers, TV, and radio news outlets (collectively known as “the media”) employ reporters, whom they pay to go out and report things. When something big like the Manchester bombing occurs, the media will send out as many reporters, film crews, and camera operators as they have, as they know these kinds of tragedies can be very complex, and cannot be covered by one person.

Here’s something troofers might find surprising: “news gathering” doesn’t mean “sitting back and waiting until rumours drift in, and then seeing if they match your preconceived ideas about how things went”. News gathering means going to the site of the disaster (or as close as it’s possible to get, because every reporter knows that they shouldn’t get in the way of rescue workers). Once there, reporters will ask questions, take photos or video footage, and interview as many relevant sources as possible.

In a disaster such as the Manchester bombing, things will be very chaotic, especially at first. Police and paramedics will be rushing about trying to cope with the emergency; some will be tending to the victims; some will be trying to secure the area so that the police can examine it later for clues as to what happened; family and friends of victims will be trying to find their loved ones. It may be hard for reporters to find out what’s happening from one minute to the next, and sometimes they will report things that later turn out to have been incorrect.

This is perfectly normal and to be expected.

Reporters are not super-human entities who can see the “big picture” all at once, and report on the whole thing. They can only report on the material that’s available at any given moment, knowing that the story will, as they say, “continue to develop”.

OF COURSE mistakes are made in the minutes and hours after an event like the Manchester bombing. This reflects the fact that on the ground, things are moving very very fast, and conflicting bits of information are coming in at a very rapid pace. Because of the nature of breaking news, factual mistakes will be made. Everyone will make them.

This is how real life works. It’s not all neat and pretty and tied up with a bow.

As for Sarah’s question about how it’s possible for a news outlet to have special programmes and documentaries ready for broadcast so quickly, please re-read what we said above about how reporters, film crews, and camera operators are all deployed as quickly as possible. These people will bring back their reports of what happened, along with masses of photos and videos. Within 24 hours of an event like the Manchester bombing, news editors will have a clearer overall picture of what happened. They will take all that material, sort out the bits they consider the best or most informative, and string it all together into a programme (or, if it’s a newspaper, they might do something called a full-page spread).

This is how news gathering works. It’s messy and imprecise. Much like life, actually.

Real life crisis actors!

This one’s going out to Angie from Oldcastle, who seems confused that in the Manchester hospital which the Queen visited, one of the nurses admitted quite freely that she and her colleagues had been involved in a crisis simulation “about a month ago”. Angie, bless her, seems to think this is proof that the Manchester bombing was only some sort of exercise. As usual, she’s a little bit confused.

Angie and all her little troofer friends probably just don’t realise that in real life, emergency workers actually engage in exercises in which they rehearse emergency procedures ahead of time, so that they will be prepared when a real crisis does occur. And here’s the real shocker: these exercises actually make use of real life crisis actors!

In fact, one of our commenters knows one. Mrs Overall writes:

What I’d really like is for hospital staff NEVER to practice for emergency situations so when a disaster happens they have no idea what they’re doing. (That’s sarcasm)

Angie – if you’re reading this I should tell you that I know a REAL crisis actor. Every year she gets a day off work to volunteer to play ‘victim’ so the hospital and other emergency services can practice so they know what to do when the real thing happens. It’s called thinking ahead and being sensible, although from what I’ve seen you’re not good at either.

So…when a nurse tells the Queen that they’ve been practising for an emergency scenario involving lots of wounded people, this doesn’t prove that the bombing wasn’t real. It does prove that nurses are smarter than troofers. But we knew that already.