Wow, Even CNBC?

What is it with the news media and railroads?

Railroading has been around for a long time now yet it seems that the media rarely gets their facts straight. More often than not, it seems, the reports contain inaccurate or completely wrong information.

Now I can understand that when a small-town newspaper or media outlet reports on a railroad-related story that there might be a mistake or two in the story. The reporter might not be railroad-savy. You see this often.

I do have an issue when a major news organization makes a error when reporting a railroad news item. They are suppose to have a very talented staff of writers, and more importantly, vast resources and good editors. At the very least, they certainly can “Google” like the rest of the world.

I was surfing the web today and came across this article from CNBC about Berkshire Hathaway acquiring BNSF Railway. The title is, mistakenly, “Berkshire Hathaway Gets Antitrust Clearance to Buy Burlington Northern.”. It should read: Berkshire Hathaway Gets Antitrust Clearance to Buy BNSF Railway Company, which is the right name of the company.  Burlington Northern is the old company.  But, it doesn’t end there. Here is the graphic they chose to put with their image of Warren Buffett.  It is the old Burlington Northern logo and not the current logo of the BNSF Railway Company!

The logo of the old railroad company, Burlington Northern

The real logo for the BNSF Railway is shown here:

I would be happy to verify facts for any media company, for a small fee, of course. Contact me here.

Comments

[Chris Hokanson]

Good commentary Joe, even a novice railfan, such as me, would have been able to recognize that mistake.
I hope that CNBC will take you up on your offer, it seems as though they have a lack of editorial knowledge concerning railroads, which is a real shame.