The headlines is the equivalent of saying Grant Fisher, Nico Young and Graham Blanks all nearly broke the magical 12:30 barrier for 5k.
Again Nike tries to take us for suckers. next thing to happen is she will copy Glenn Cunningham’s playbook and claim that she actually broke 4:00 in practice and her coach will back her up except he died before he could tell the world.
The media's journalists are surprisingly ignorant when it comes to any knowledge of a subject that is not right at the surface. To a track enthusiast as yourself and others, you understand the nuances of and relatability of how performances and times relate to each other. You know that 4:06 is not in reality that close to being able to break a 4 minute mile. The media doesn't realize this. They see that the time is only 7 seconds away from 3:59 and automatically assume that it's just a near miss and that next time Faith would only need slight adjustments and then she would break 4.
The journalists are using their experience in the world that 7 seconds is trivial and incorrectly applying it to this situation because they didn't consult with experts. They just arrogantly followed their own instincts like they usually do with many other topics and fields. For example, the media usually misinterprets things like;
Economics. Inflation, GDP, Consumer Price Index, deflation, and interest rates
Medicine. Understanding the numbers behind the studies and why they are important.
Wars. Strategies, bombings, intelligence, and casualties
Science. If the breakthroughs are indeed breakthroughs, their significance, costs, data reliability, and etc.
Journalists are generally adept with language but terrible with analytical thinking, mathematics, and statistics. Even when they interview field experts, they tend to misunderstand what is being said. They'll make assumptions and inaccurately report findings.
Is there blatant lying resulting from political agendas, satisfying financial interests, and promoting obvious propaganda? Absolutely, but don't overlook the factors of overconfidence and arrogance from these people. They think they know everything. Listen to any one of them speak on either local or national news and watch how conceited they all are.
Also consider that news as a product is in competition with all other news industries, so it needs to be delivered as quickly as possible without time to verify all the information. This leads to the journalist writing a story based on assumptions which she/he knows that most regular people will devour without checking the sources of data for accuracy.
Can't disagree with your overall analysis. I'm not sure that the Independent article Rojo posted was written by someone proverbially shooting from the hip though. I think in all likelihood the writers and editors released the article as is to promote the current leftist agenda to sell gender equality at all costs, including in sports. So making Faith seem closer to sub 4 than she actually is fits that kind of girls can do it too narrative that the far left wants.
So many posts that begin with sensible premises and facts commit Sepuku by jamming a political slur into their comment. Whether I’m left or right or in the middle I recognize displaced illogical pap. It’s just not necessary, and it takes away from your argument/comment.
For the general public and people that don’t follow the sport, 4:06 is nearly breaking 4 minutes.
If you're stupid enough to think this, I don't think you're reading articles on the internet. Most likely, you're getting your news from Tiktok robots voice videos with Minecraft parkour clips in the background.