A Black Queen's Day

[sierra_le_oli]

Museum Auntie called this afternoon with some shocking news: a car had sped through a Queen's Day crowd in Apeldoorn, apparently to try and hit the Dutch royal family who were riding in an open-topped bus. The driver missed his target, but five people have died and a dozen or more are injured. There are no indications that anyone apart from the

Comments

[yoodi]

It's quite big on the news over here in Germany, too.

[sierra_le_oli]

I only had a look on faz.net last night but not the rest, I keep forgetting that Germany has a fondness for the Dutch royals.

[sierra_le_oli]

That's why I was surprised this story not only made the news but was among the the top headlines. Guess it brings relief from the swine flu story as well.

[mrscosmopilite]

I think the Guardian's journalist is suffering the same problem as many other journalists in various media, trying to find an angle.
Of course for those who don't have friends who know some background and/or happen to believe everything that is printed it can become part of the story, even though as in this case it's an irrelevancy.
The real story is unlikely to ever come out now the driver has died. My heart goes out to those poor souls who have been affected.

[sierra_le_oli]

I think you're right. Also, the byline credits Angelique Chrisafis and agencies. Chrisafis' bio says she's the Guardian's Paris correspondent which might be the problem. Though it was just odd that an article which manages to mention the amount of power the Dutch queen has compared to other European monarchs, gets the easier abdication concept wrong.

I've just finished a post comparing the error creep in some of the foreign media and it does make you wonder how often these details slip through. And of course, how often major errors are made.

[arwen_lune]

marred by rumours of abdication? Dude needs to read up on how common and expected that practice is here..