Editorial Comment

I know the hardest thing for most people to get right, or remember, when writing a press release --- even for some longtime PR people --- is AP style. And I know it's not likely very many readers of this entry will immediately start writing like veteran reporters, if only because most people don't write day after day after day, which is really what it takes to approach style perfection. But since I don't think we offer press release submitters and other contributers to the paper enough guidance, I will highlight a few common mistakes. It couldn't hurt.
One of biggest pains for a copy editor is dealing with a release or column in which the writer has left spaces after each sentence and hit return twice after each paragraph. Very few newspapers if any put those spaces in, and they have to be deleted, which is a bit easier now with global searches but never a picnic. Our search isn't all that reliable. I realize that many people learned to type this way --- who is teaching people this style, anyway, and could they just stop? --- but most newspapers would appreciate it if the practice died a horrible death.
There are many other anti-AP style regulars, but these are a few of the classics:
---- Using postal abbreviations for states, such as VT or NY. The AP style is Vt. or N.Y.
---- Capitalizing everything and anything. This comes from press release writing produced by businesses, governments and colleges, in which every possible title, like Stamp Collector or Gentleman is capitalized. And words like State or Town or or Board or Business all get a capital. These all have to be changed by the editors. Basically, the rules are that only a true title, not a generic one, takes a capital, and titles that come before the name are usually capitalized, but those that come after aren't. As in Chairman John Brown and Jane Brown, chairwoman of the board.
----- Out of the blue abbreviating words like department or route right in the middle of a sentence. It should be Department of Human Services and Route 7.

That's all for now, but when I come across more I'll post them here.

---- Jim Therrien

Posted by Jim Therrien at 12:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the major justifications for hating cable television “news” channels has to be O.J. Simpson. Although we suppose O.J. shouldn’t take all the blame himself.
After all, no one is forcing CNN and the rest to keep showing almost every minute of his latest trial — and then piling on hours of “legal analysis.”
On the one hand, maybe it is fitting for the cable networks to pay homage to the guy, who, in 1994, single-handedly launched the celebrity news age by, many would agree, killing his wife and her friend in grisly fashion.
We wonder, though, who the producers of such garbage coverage think they are serving by showing it ad nauseum. If anyone with half a wit is watching the O.J. show, or Anna Nicole, or Britney or Paris, bet that it is only as they are looking for the channel changer or hoping that the network will air some real news — usually to be disappointed.
But shouldn’t the advertisers in that degenerating media wonder who such coverage is attracting? Primarily morons fixated by flashing pseudo celebrities and people screaming and about to flip the channel.
And advertisers, who seemed to be driving these lowbrow efforts, should give some thought to the type of consumers they are reaching — as opposed to those who would prefer an NPR or BCC style news format. Of course, if they are selling gadgets for the witless, then they are right on target.

— Jim Therrien

Posted by Jim Therrien at 11:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)