NY Daily News Changes Motorcycle Crash Story, Deletes Comments, Without Explanation

Photo: ALD999

The original NY Daily News headline said: "Fleeing biker dies during Brooklyn chase after police car hits back of ..."

The story read, "A motorcyclist died in a wipeout Wednesday after a cop's car hit the back of his bike during a high-speed chase in Brooklyn, sources said."

But sometime before midnight on Thursday the News changed the headline to "Motorcyclist, 33, dies after losing control and slamming into parked car in Brooklyn"

The revised story reads, "Cops said a police car was driving behind two motorcyclists on the same street moments before the accident, but that was not related to the fatal crash."

Commenters aren't buying the News' revisions.

Commenter Miguel Ortiz wrote:
"This is false!!!!!!!! the cop hit the bike from behind and then moved it behind a parked car. they are covering up the real story. there are many witnesses that can testify to that. the people who called 911 was there when the whole thing happen. and yes the other chase was together with this one. they all just separated from each other just to lose the cops. Ya really need to get your facts right before posting false news."

Commenter BrooklynEXMarine wrote:
"They deleted our comments from the first article also. 20andout and a few other posters messages were removed too."

Here's a blog post based on the News' original story.
Here's the NY Post's version of the same story.

Our take: It's considered a good journalistic practice to date-stamp revisions and explain why they were made. The News provides no explanation of this major change in the story -- and apparently thinks nothing of dumping readers comments wholesale. Which makes their whole story sound manufactured.

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