ABC News needs a copy editor
Published 12/16/07
A messy day for ABC News. First there’s this on the home page:
It’s “four fewer,” guys, not “4 less.” It’s one thing for the idiots at Kroger to mix those up, but you’re supposed to be writers.
Then, from its “10 Worst Moments in Sports” we’re told that “Major League Baseball players also striked against a proposed salary cap….”
The past tense of strike is “struck.“
[sigh]
Richard says:
Was that ABC network news, Andrew? You know, where they can afford to hire news writers skilled in English grammar?
Speaking as a snobbish newspaper reporter and editor, I cringe when TV news people call themselves “journalists.” I consider journalists our front-line defenders of the language.
TV news is driven by video, by and for people who are not necessarily literate. Minimal background, in-depth or follow-up reporting, poor grammar, poor arithmetic, … only mostly pretty faces reading second-rate news copy from behind a desk or out in the street.
The fewer times I watch TV news, the less nauseous I get.