Friday, July 21, 2006
Crappy Journalism
A n00b junior bridge officer panicked. That’s what happened. And I’m saying this first because the idiotic news writer didn’t.
Folks, this story is NOT good journalism. It’s a pathetic attempt to draw out suspense and make you scroll past potential ads.
This article’s headline reports that human error, and not a mechanical glitch, caused a cruise ship to list severely. I’d been following this story, so I naturally started reading.
And reading…
And reading…
Good grief, upon reaching the 11th paragraph and reading FIVE repetitions within the first 10 paragraphs that it was human error and not a mechanical problem, I finally found the explanation.
Don’t they teach the inverted pyramid writing style in journalism classes any more?
And get this; the 9th paragraph reads, “Here’s how our source explains what happened.”
!!!!!??????!!!!!
Don’t stinkin’ spend more space telling me what I’ve been trying to find out for the entire first half of the story, and a subsequent paragraph repeating that the ship started out on automatic pilot—standard procedure.
WESH’s news team has really been slacking lately. I used to prefer them for local news, but they’re just pathetic now. WFTV usually gets my attention now, which works well since most of the prime time shows I watch are also on ABC.
» Posted by ALBj at 09:13 PM (ET)
Category: Rant
Comments
Sorry, due to comment spam abuse, new comments on this entry are closed until I find time to upgrade Movable Type and enable registration and moderation.
Good journalism is becoming as much of a contridiction as honest polititian. Besides being poorly written, most news stories have such a biased slant to them, it’s almost impossible to get the facts.
» Posted by Queue
July 24, 2006 11:48 AM