Where do journalists go to school?

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Tom

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I often have to smile when I read inaccuracies, grammatical errors, and simple bad spelling in the printed press. I have similar reactions when I watch various TV news channels, and I've been known to write to ill-informed TV journalists to explain their incorrect info, in addition to showing them how easy it is to get the correct info online. I didn't get the courtesy of a reply or even an acknowledgement.

Today, if I'd had a coffee in hand, I would have spilled it all over me. Clicking through the channels, I (accidentally) landed on a CNN video report on Venice. The journalist asserted that this was the only city in the world where you can step out your door and cruise the world. I can think of several such cities in California, including our own home, and there are numerous others around the US and the world. If this guy merely looked at a Google map, he would have known he was wrong.

FWIW I flunked geography at grammar school, but today's online tools make that a non-issue.
 
Journalism students spend most of their time in school interviewing everyone in all the campus bars. ::)
 
That's why we never watch network news.  It's either ignorance, lack of research, or just plain lies.  There are no impartial news sources on the networks, and darn few on the internet.

You can leave from Milwaukee, WI, and cruise the world :)
 
Jeff said:
Journalism students spend most of their time in school interviewing everyone in all the campus bars. ::)

Actually Jeff they all sit in class rooms being brain washed by a bunch of blow hards that dont have a clue about the real world.
 
Network news people are not even the worst!  Eugene, Oregon is a university town.  They often hire their own graduates or graduates from nearby Washington state.  Some of the mangled pronunciations, sentences ending in a preposition, and other blatant grammatical errors sometimes blow my mind. 
 
If you want to be even more disgusted try reading what passes for journalism on Yahoo, Google, and MSN.

It's not just journalists either.  In my corporate career we recruited 'the best of the best' from colleges all over the country.  Not many of them could craft a coherent sentence.
 
I and another Engineering manager were known as the toughest people to get to approve a report as we usually marked it up quite a bit due to the poor English.  My unit published 40 to 60 reports a month and I hated being an English teacher!
 
When I lived in Washington, I could walk across the street and go from my neighbor's dock directly into Puget Sound.  Then take off around the world if I wanted.

Besides, I thought Venice was on a closed lagoon.  Didn't they build a big flood control dam a few years ago that seals them off from the ocean?

On further research - it's the MOSE project.  Only closes off ocean access during high water, though at the rate Venice is sinking this may become more and more frequent.  They're building ship locks around it so cruise ships and other traffic won't be inconvenienced.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOSE_Project
 
Well it is not always the faces you see... You see a reporter gets the story then a copywrighter writes it then a talking head reads it.. if that is they can read.  I have seen so many errors in stories that ... Well the only part of the paper worth reading...The Comic page.
 
Where do journalists go to school?--- They didn't go anywhere that actually educated them. . 

Nor are they "journalists."  They would not know the five W's of journalism if it slapped them in the face.

At least on TV they are talking heads, that read the news and they can't even do that well.

If anyone knows of a GOOD national TV station that I can get my news, let me know.
 
Not to defend CNN (a channel I never watch, btw), but from the scenes of Venice that I've seen, I suspect there are more than one such place where the first step out your door literally has to be into a boat.  I don't think many here, can claim that.
 
They are just typical liberal arts graduates; the science, engineering and math majors are even worse. The silver lining is that a ninth grade graduate who reads extensively, can think, and chooses to learn to communicate can do very well in today's business climate in the US. Been there, done that!

Ernie
 
They all rely on technology, i.e Microsoft Publisher or something like that, with built in grammar and spell check. The problem is, the English language doesn't always follow grammatical rules. No one ever checks for that.

What I hated was paying big bucks for school text books and finding elementary grammar errors and mispelled words that should have been caught with a good proofreader.
 
As Don Henley said "I just have to look good; I don't have to be clear".

No better example of this than Fox news I was watching while visiting my father the other day. It appeared that the lead "journalist" thought she was in a Victoria's Secret fashion shoot....not that I'm complaining.  8)
 
cadee2c said:
They all rely on technology, i.e Microsoft Publisher or something like that, with built in grammar and spell check. The problem is, the English language doesn't always follow grammatical rules. No one ever checks for that.

I agree. Look at those who can't do simple math anymore. It's all about the calculator. Grab the phone outta your pocket.
Now, It's all about Facebook and texting. Some of which can't be read by some of us old timers. We don't understand the lingo!

Journalist are becoming a new breed. Just as local newspapers are going by the wayside due to the internet. Times are changing. The world is changing too fast and news travels too quickly to pay attention to small imperfections such as grammar.

Welcome to the new age.

 
I wondered how the Venetians deal with tidal variations, or whether there is a variation in the lagoon. Opening your door and stepping into a boat could be hazardous; I could imagine a long drop to the boat when the tide is out, or a flood in the house when the tide is in  :eek:

We handle the small (4-5 feet) tidal variations here with a hinged ramp from the back door to the dock. In Practice, most homes are set back a little from the water, allowing for a deck behind the house, and the hinged ramp is attached to the deck. Some folks get a little more creative and include steps down to the ramp. As you'd expect, this all gets confounded by local and Federal regulations.

Published papers and articles seem to suggest 2-3 feet tidal variation in the Venice lagoon; Some of those papers are way too math heavy, including other factors such as wind, to come up with a simple number  :(  Photos I've seen (accessible online) suggest that many Venetian homes and businesses have either a dock or a wide sidewalk (like a promenade) between the buildings and the boats.
 
Most of them (journalists) have very little understanding of anything that is related to science or math but that is to be expected I suppose.
What shouldn't happen is that a electrical engineer (me, BSEE 1972)  can see grammar errors and misuse of words in so many articles in the press.  I have been an avid reader since I was seven years old but I know I make a lot of mistakes in tense and grammar. I guess I expect more from the "professionals".


I just found out recently that there are more than the three tenses (at least I think it was three) I learned in school. See HERE . Isn't that amazing? There is no way I will ever remember all that.
 
Clay L said:
I just found out recently that there are more than the three tenses (at least I think it was three) I learned in school. See HERE . Isn't that amazing? There is no way I will ever remember all that.

Just reading that made me tense  ::)
 

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