Today I sent an angry e-mail to AFP.
I was browsing news stories at Yahoo and came across the story of the guy who drowned in Hull yesterday during dreadful floods in the area. I am from this area so of course it is of particular interest to me.

However, I found the first paragraph (sentence even) of this artical very distasteful.

The full article is copied below along with its link (in case someone decides to alter the text later on).

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20070625/tuk-britain-weather-a7ad41d.html

LONDON (AFP) - A man was drowned by rising flood waters in a manhole Monday despite frantic efforts to free him, as torrential rain lashed Britain, delaying the start of tennis at Wimbledon.

Emergency services in the city of Hull, worked for over three hours to try to rescue the man, believed to be in his 20s, after he became trapped while apparently trying to clean the drain.

But the water gradually rose to his neck and firefighters were unable to free his foot, said Humberside Fire and Rescue Service.

“The guy had been out just helping granddad to clear the drains… and unfortunately he slipped and got trapped down there and his foot got caught in some metal grating,” said spokesman Glenn Ramsden.

“It’s been an absolutely desperate operation to save this man but at the end of the day we couldn’t do it.”

Elsewhere rivers broke their banks, flooding roads and homes in various parts of the country, from Devon to Yorkshire in the north.

The Environment Agency, which monitors weather risks nationwide, issued four severe flood warnings and 21 standard flood warnings.

In London, the start of the 121st Wimbledon tennis championships was delayed for over two and a half hours because of the rain, while organisers were bracing for scheduling headaches with more showers forecast.

Nearly 180,000 people who had spent the last three days at the Glastonbury Festival were meanwhile trudging towards trains, cars and buses, bedraggled, soaked and muddy from head to toe.

This is the part I find offensive;

LONDON (AFP) - A man was drowned by rising flood waters in a manhole Monday despite frantic efforts to free him, as torrential rain lashed Britain, delaying the start of tennis at Wimbledon.

I mean really, Is it possible to trivialise someones unfortunate death any more than that? I have no problem with them mentioning wimbledon further down in the article - but its so unnecessary to include that in the first sentance along with the main story - which is someone dying!

According to AFP’s website they offer quality, excellence and reliability - they even go so far to make the words quality and reliability bold.

Well AFP, I see no quality in the content of that story - in fact I see a trivialisation and distaste that makes me question your organisation as a serious news source.

Update
Reuters version:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070625/tuk-uk-britain-weather-fa6b408.html
They wait until 50% of the way into the story before mentioning wimbledon.

Update 2:
It seems AFP have now changed their text, so if you click the original link you now get a different story.