Lurn to Rite Newsies

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Lurn to Rite Newsies

Postby crs » Wed Jan 21, 2015 9:28 am

I am continually AMAZED at how radio and tv stations in our province aren't doing all their "checks and balances" when it comes to writing styles. One phrase that rankles my tail feathers is the overuse use of "fled on foot". Heard a reporter on the 730am news on CBC Radio One use it this morning. My first News Director told me that use of that phrase is "cop speak" and not journalism and the thought stuck with me through my 16 year reporting career. Who in the real world says "fled on foot"?? ("Where's little Bobby?" "Sorry to say he FLED ON FOOT when I was getting the milk at the market.") The proper phrase would be "RAN AWAY" folks. Leave it to the officers at the press conference to say the criminal "fled on foot" but when you go to your laptops and cell phones to file your story remember the suspect RAN AWAY. :violent1: Class dismissed.
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Re: Lurn to Rite Newsies

Postby J Kendrick » Wed Jan 21, 2015 10:06 am

"Fled on foot" would infer that he did not "run away" in a vehicle, on a bicycle, on a skateboard, or by using some other mode of wheeled transportation ...
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Re: Lurn to Rite Newsies

Postby mccrady » Wed Jan 21, 2015 1:32 pm

I'm with CRS. We need to tell the story, not read it. That gets easier to do if we write for the ear instead of the eye. That means using words that we would normally use in a conversation with a single listener. It means writing in thoughts instead of the complete sentences your grammar teacher insisted upon. That's how we talk to each other and that's how we should be talking to our listener.

Yes, it can seem less precise to say "ran away" instead of "fled on foot". If some thief got away on a skateboard we can easily enough say that. But we do engage in too much cop-speak in the name of precision. Terms such as "male" and "female" instead of "girl" and "woman" or "man" and "boy" come to mind as well.

We keep getting caught up in the language of the bureaucrat: "expenditure" instead of "spending" is one example I hear every time a provincial or federal budget comes down.

It's lazy journalism. And editors ... if there still is such an animal in newsrooms these days ... should be catching it.
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Re: Lurn to Rite Newsies

Postby bigbry » Wed Jan 21, 2015 2:57 pm

I heard a local news gal say..."Shot by a gun"...boy I'm glad she told me that. For a moment I thought the government would have to start a bow and arrow registry.
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Re: Lurn to Rite Newsies

Postby crs » Tue Feb 24, 2015 1:20 am

Here we go again FFS. Global News at 6 was airing a story about a hit and run accident where the driver chose to "drive away" rather than deal with what happened. Except Global said the driver "fled the scene." PEOPLE, are y'all that lazy that you're going direct from press release to the 6 o'clock news??? :violent1: "Fled on foot" "fled the scene", etc is "cop-speak". One who fails to hang around to deal with authorities at the scene of a hit and run "DROVE AWAY" or "DROVE OFF". In normal everyday terms, if you saw someone take the last donut from the box in the coffee room at work would you say Ralph "fled" with the last one or would you say Ralph "walked off" with the last one. For someone who spent almost 2 decades reporting and doing his share of rewrites from press releases and being warned NEVER to use cop-speak, it enough to make me wanna :pottytrain2: the newsreader.
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Re: Lurn to Rite Newsies

Postby J Kendrick » Tue Feb 24, 2015 2:03 pm

Aside from the fact it should be "shot with a gun"... not "by a gun"

There are a more than a few instances in our city's past in which the victims had been shot with either a crossbow or a nail gun.
... not to mention hunting rifles and/or shotguns...
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Re: Lurn to Rite Newsies

Postby J Kendrick » Tue Feb 24, 2015 2:56 pm

Air guns ... paint guns... pellet guns... spear guns... you name it...
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Re: Lurn to Rite Newsies

Postby Jim Walters » Mon Apr 13, 2015 3:54 pm

From an NW News alert email today.


CKNW NEWS ALERT

Two people are dead following an abandoned warehouse on East Hastings Street in Vancouver. The fire started overnight. Two squatters were rescued.


Download the new CKNW APP today! Download here for iPhone, or here for Android
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Re: Lurn to Rite Newsies

Postby radioman » Mon Apr 13, 2015 4:15 pm

Another phrase that only the media seems to use is, "it's not clear." When did you ever hear anybody in conversation using "it's not clear" when they might be referring to the cause of a building fire, or who started a fight? Seems to me that most people would say, "I don't know what started the fire, or I don't know who started the fight." Certainly not, "it's not clear." Sounds like somebody is looking at a situation through fogged up glasses.
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Re: Lurn to Rite Newsies

Postby PMC » Mon Apr 13, 2015 4:24 pm

`CKNW NEWS ALERT

Two people are dead following an abandoned warehouse on East Hastings Street in Vancouver. The fire started overnight. Two squatters were rescued.'


Why were two people following an abandoned warehouse ? Is this a new mobile model of warehouse :lol:
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