This one’s aimed at sub-editors again – or whoever overruled the sub who may have objected to this dreadful headline in today’s Metro. Drug death student took meow meow Well – that’s clear enough, surely? Some hard-partying student took the narcotic du jour and it killed her. Make it illegal quickly and with little rational […]
Spotted twice yesterday in papers that should know better – two stories baring the writer’s ignorance of simple English. The London Standard story This isn’t just a decline … it’s a Marks and Spencer decline noted: The store front is fading and a little grotty. The shop sign seems left over from the Fifties, baring […]
Caught yesterday in the Metro – a brief news report on a social networking survey by InSites (ugh) Consulting. As reported in Metro: 77% of UK internet users use social networking sites 42% of UK internet users use Twitter 50% of UK internet users use Facebook Let’s look at those numbers, shall we? First – […]
Here’s a nice dissection on the Forbes web site of a Toyota Prius accelerator fault hoax that has hit US news media. Apparently, James Sikes was driving a Toyota Prius in California when the accelerator jammed – the same fault that is said to have caused the death of a family in a Lexus and […]
Every journalist and his dog seems to add this redundant phrase to whatever story they’re writing (or presenting, if it’s on TV or radio). Here’s a typical example (from the Telegraph): “Amazon releases Kindle for iPhone but are there enough ebooks out there?” Uh – out where, exactly? If the story is asking whether there are enough enough […]
Yesterday’s “news” carried two items that should have been shocking in their inability to separate hysteria and PR puffery from proper reporting. If that wasn’t really what the modern media is all about. The stories are from supposedly opposite corners of the media ring – one super serious, the other light-hearted. Each is crap in […]
For anyone who enjoys headline and typo of the day-type sites, Criggo has some top-flight material. I particularly liked the slightly surreal “Protesters protest protest-signs protest” here. A sub’s dream… [HT: Jessica]
When someone comes under attack for something or other, many journalists pull out the old anti-aircraft metaphor to describe it. But here, sadly, their ignorance starts to show. “Flak” comes from a German acronym for anti aircraft fire – Fl(ieger)a(bwehr)k(anone). A “flack” is a slightly derogatory North American term for a publicity agent. So ditch […]
My first reaction on seeing this Guardian media headline – “Literacy level of recruits now a major concern for media, report finds” – was: I know – I’ve said it myself often enough. But then I read the story. The story says absolutely nothing about general literacy. It makes the following points: The industry needs more […]
Spotted in today’s Metro – a travel piece on what looks like a delightful part of Sardinia. But I think the “gut-busting” lunch enjoyed by the writer has affected her English. …courses of muscles and clams, fat prawns and melt-in-the-mouth hoops of calamari… And I thought the Metro was supposed to be a subs’ paper…