How can newswriters be so freakin stupid?

[motion]

It happens everyday... I read stuff written by professional journalists, writers, editors, etc. that just amaze me. This is their job, and they still suck. What is really incredible, is when you read an article that you have intimate knowledge of the subject matter, and you know that half the article is full of mistakes and inaccuracies. You'd think they could do better. Here's my gripe of the day:

Spot... do they not even know what a frickin heel is?

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Doesn't the editor usually write the captions? If so, it proves the saying that editors are just failed writers.

[dd74]

Okay, I give: I don't get your gripe. CNN has gone through some trends with their caption writing, by late, which is to add some humor to what would otherwise be a rather boring line.

"Spot trots," aliterates the sound dogs make when they "trot." The words are meant to somewhat "click," as does a dog when moving on concrete or hardwood floors.

"Heels" is an obvious double-entendre. "Heels" or near the heels is where the dog walks, while also obeying its master's command.

Now if the caption read: "Spot trots along at the toe of the president and first lady in November 2003," there'd be some gramatical incongruencies because there are three feet in the photo (GW's two, Laura's one foot). Conversely, "Spot trots along at the "toes" of the president and first lady in November 2003." lacks anything interesting in the language itself - dull caption for a dull photo given those legs and dog could belong to anyone.

If they were to say: "Spot "tows" the line," or something to that effect, the caption would indeed have some spice, but that discounts the sound of "dog" to the caption, which is integral to the reader having "feelings" for the story - (I bet a dog owner/lover wrote this caption and edited the story).

It's not easy writing these things. The hardest daily writing in newspapers are covering a losing athletic team while trying to find new ways of saying "they lost," and weather that hasn't changed in five months, where you're left with sunny skies AGAIN today. These two ongoing scenarios kill a writer's language skills. If at all, they're the ones with the worn out thesaurus.

BTW: CNN saw nothing wrong with the caption. The story's been up since late this morning with the same writing beneath the photo.

[speeder]

I'm just sorry to hear that the dog died, he was my favorite one in that whole family.

[cegerer]

"Boob-bait for the bubbas." Can't remember who coined that one, but it pretty much sums up the media in general. Take a story or newsevent and 'massage' the facts and quotes to make it sound good to the average schmoe out on the street. Accuracy? What difference does that make ...... That's why I don't buy newspapers or watch news programming on TV.

[cegerer]

Some of my favorite poorly written headlines:

"SUV Slams into Crowd. Kills 250." Ahhh, unless the SUV had some type of autopilot feature, it was actually the driver of the SUV who slammed into the crowd .....

Corrected Headline: Soccer Mom Stuffing Big Mac into Pie Hole, Talking on Cellphone and Steering With Knee Drives Her SUV into Crowd. Murders 250.

"Suicide Bomb Kills 500 in Bagdad". Bombs are incapable of thought and, therefore, probably aren't capable of deciding to commit suicide ......

Corrected Headline: Deranged Terrorist With Diaper Wrapped Around Head Uses Bomb to Murder 500 Innocent People in Bagdad.

"Guns Responsible for 10 Million Deaths Per Week" Ummm, guns are inanimate pieces of metal and are incapable of being responsible or not responsible. It was the finger on the trigger and the person attached to that finger that caused the deaths ......

Corrected Headline: Worthless Gang Members with Illegal Guns Kill 10 Million Other Worthless Gang Members With Poorer Shooting Skills.

By pounding this type of boob-bait into peoples minds day-after-day, the solution to our problems becomes quite elementary: ban SUV's, bombs and guns and everybody lives happily ever after.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Oh, I'm with you on the guns and bombs, cegerer, but we should definitely ban SUVs.

[304065]

Curt, that is the funniest post I have read in the last twelve months!

[Sonic dB]

Another example of this is the current headline running in the news section at www.yahoo.com

"Schwarzenegger Argues for White House Run"


This, on the surface... makes it appear that Arnold is angling for a shot at the White House for himself....

But, if you read the article... Arnold is merely stating that he believes that anyone who has been a US citizen for over 20 years, should be able to run for President. When asked if he was a candidate, he said that he had been too busy with California to even think about it.

Maybe someday Arnold will run for President...but not right now, as the article's headline suggests.

This is why I despise yahoo news....

[dd74]

One of the most famous: "Headless Body Found in Topless Bar." --NY Post from decades ago.