Calling an Adult

My, my, I'm about to sound like a fuddy-duddy, more than usual, I guess.

An AP obit about Patricia Neal included this teenager-like paragraph:

Whenever she was in town, a bunch of her friends would always get together and have dinner, Albers said. She had wanted to be there next week for a golf tournament that benefits the center, he said.

Now, I suppose it was a paraphased quote, but the advantage of paraphrasing it is that you get to write it the way an adult would write. I have no problem with pseudo-conversational style as long as it still sounds as if a grownup were in charge.

Surprise! World's Problems Continue

At first glance, this headline makes the "woes" appear to be of Obama's making. That's not what the story says: they are problems around the world that Obama must tackle.

Analysis: Obama's woes keep piling up around globe
By BARRY SCHWEID
AP Diplomatic Writer

WASHINGTON – The woes keep piling up for President Barack Obama.
While it is unfair to blame him for all the world's problems (although some folks try) there is no question he is having trouble finding the right answers.

Mocking the AP

The fun folks at Daily Kos are having a blast mocking The Associated Press for a truly hamfisted and one-sided lede.
Here's the lede in question:

The Democratic-led Congress' determination to do something about health care this year has slowed legislation affecting the safety of almost every traveler in America.

Associated Press Wins Major Award

My top choice is probably the one about God and the seven days but feel free to pick your fave.

Death on Display

I find the issue of whether to use the  photo of the mortally wounded Marine a tough one, though come down on the side of publishing it. It is no doubt painful for his parents and many others who loved him to see him dying, bloody on the field of battle.

But this is what is going on, in full view of others on the battlefield, thus hardly a secret. The romance, the endless labeling since Sept. 11 of all soldiers (and cops and firefighters) as heroes and warriors, the refusal to question what is happening to soldiers, not to mention our military and political policies, requires us to do hurtful things some times.

We have a fair amount of military service in my family; the latest is my "little" nephew, Jeff (he's 6 foot 5, I think),  who's headed over there soon to fly Army helicopters.  I would never, ever, want his mother--my sister-- or anyone else to see him in a photo like this. But really what we all want is to not see any of our sons and daughters, or fathers and mothers, or nieces and nephews, have any reason to wind up in these photos.

It's hard to read the personal, individual stories told at Daily Kos I Got The News Today and not weep and wonder how the families cope. And where the country goes from here.

 But in the haze of unending and ridiculously tacky celebrity news, faked controversies and genearl artifice, it's easy to forget what real news is. News is ugly because it is reality and presenting a pristine view of what goes on does no one any good.

The State of Headline Writing/UPDATED

UPDATE 2: Incensed Copy Editor (See below) provides this similar link, to The Gleaner in Jamaica.

Would a person familiar with American English or the United States in general have written this headline?

An incensed copy editor e-mailed this today, asking, justifiably, whether the AP is outsourcing its headline-writing needs to other countries or whether this is really the state of American journalism these days. This assumes that this is an AP headline, and not one produced by the source newspaper. UPDATE: as Henry Fuhrmann points out, the version on AP's own page says "Mass." at this point, though it's possible it was changed. And when I Google the entire headline, the only place it shows is on newsday.com, which means the source is unclear.

Either way, it's absolutely horrible and the writer should think about whether journalism is the right career path.

US state rejects Madoff settlement offer.

Also, as the e-mailer notes this morning, Massachusetts is a commonwealth, not a state, so it's Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, not secretary of state.

Come on, people.

There's Headlines and Then

David Weir at BNET Media ridicules AP's headlines, though it has to do with AP's dictates about republishing content.

Really, the headlines were usually bad enough when you could see them in their entirety. Maybe reprinting just four words will help.  This sort of reminds me of an old Wall Street Journal headline on a piece about how everyone is too busy to complete their projects, with a headline that read, "We were much too busy to finish this h...."

One Little Letter

I could probably do more than make fun of a typo but this is too good to pass up: What a difference one letter makes:

...His top contenders are said to include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Less traditional choices mentioned include former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, an abortion-rights supporter, and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential prick in 2000 who now is an independent.

The AP's 'Professing'

The Associated Press likes this sentence about the Edwards-Hunter affair so much that it crops up in at least three stories under three different bylines.

A former Edwards campaign staff member professes to be the father.

But "professes" often suggests doubt, at least to me.

Given the accusations of political bias at the AP Washington bureau, maybe words should be chosen a little more carefully.

Fighting About Fair Use

Newshoggers.com notes this: The AP Gets Into a Fight With Bloggers
This is going to be interesting.

Confiscating Tape in Iraq

Josh Marshall and friends are all over this story.

Yesterday we noted the AP story that said that US military personnel had confiscated videotape that an AP reporter had taken at the scene of the bombing in which the Polish Ambassador was injured. Allegedly they were enforcing an Iraqi law banning coverage of the aftermath of such events.
That seemed pretty odd. How does the US military get involved enforcing an Iraqi law banning press coverage?
TPMmuckraker's Spencer Ackerman got on the case. And after first being told by US military representatives that they didn't know anything about such a confiscation, he eventually learned that not only had the videotape been confiscated but that the reporter had also been temporarily taken into custody. There's still no explanation of why US forces are enforcing this law. And they still appear to be refusing to give the tape back. Here's our report. And we're continuing to look for more answers.

The Citizen Media Revolution

The AP's Lou Ferrara has some interesting things to say about how far expectations for citizen media have come.