You

Found ya!I need some commas in my blog.Wilya go getem?

Today's tearjerker, from the WaPo

Fated to Be Friends
Sometimes you read a remarkable news story about remarkable people, remarkable events, and remarkable moments in history. This one throws in a more-than-remarkable coincidence and is definitely the tearjerker of my day.

A little comma-doctoring for the WaPo

Betting on Hype Tech
I have to get in a little comma-doctoring now and then, and when one of the nation's major dailies gives me the opportunity in the lead sentence of a Page 1 story, I simply won't resist it.

By Kim Hart and Tomoeh Murakami Tse
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, July 1, 2007; Page F01

For the giddy Apple groupies who spent hours, or days, in line for an iPhone, it all came down to the final reward: snagging a new technology for $600 that has yet to prove itself.

So, how does $600 prove itself, really? Or perhaps they meant to say, "snagging a new technology that has yet to prove itself, for $600." Maybe even, "snagging, for $600, a new technology that has yet to prove itself."

Ya think? I personally would dump the snazzy "snagging" and go with "spending $600 on a new technology that has yet to prove itself." But that's just me, and that lead sentence is supposed to be catchy.

WWAY-TV and ethics: it's worse than I thought

As I wrote not long ago, I really don't look for reasons to write about the people at WWAY, but they seem to try really hard to give them to me.

This is just stunning. Stunning actually doesn't begin to describe my reaction - I wrote earlier about a "news" story about a company award won by the local BMW dealer, but even then I tried to give the benefit of the doubt, and thought perhaps it was just an ethical slip on the part of some junior members of the sales and/or news staff, perhaps born of inexperience. And I thought, when I wrote earlier about "Dancing with WWAY," that it was nothing more than one of the stupidest sweeps series I ever saw.

WWAY TO GO: LIVE, LOCAL, INTERACTIVE
But no, as this article published on TVNewsday, a subscription-only trade website (but almost certainly mostly written by WWAY staff themselves) brags loudly and lustily, they are proud of the success of a new plan to completely disregard the separation between sales and news. The article even reports that the ridiculous failure (as a news series at least) "Dancing with WWAY" earned them $5,500 for that ethical breach. I don't have time to go into the Mother's and Father's Day promotions, which were equally stupid if not quite so annoying, and apparently just as unethical.

Weatherman Chris Phillips was a good sport about it, but nonetheless seemed rather pained to be participating in "Dancing" even before he was actually injured and had to sit out the rest of the "contest." Stephanie Beecken, on the other hand, threw her entire talentless self into it. While it is probably accurate to describe him as one of "two of our most popular news talent," how on earth could they include her in that?

Even after the pretty much complete turnover of the newsroom over the past year, it is ludicrous to claim that yet another imported bottle blonde is even familiar to anyone in Wilmington, much less "popular," after three months here. I had felt sorry for her up till then, definitely including her in the list of those I mentioned earlier who arrive here on their "first or second jobs out of college and spending one contract term here working for their big break somewhere else, or showing us and themselves why they don't have what it takes to get any further." While I wasn't thinking of her specifically when I wrote that, she is definitely in the latter camp. The only talent I have observed in her thus far is an entirely uncalled-for self-esteem. She wasn't bad at the dancing, but who gives a flying flip about that? I just noticed on the WWAY website (no link in order not to give them more traffic to brag about) that even after his injury, Chris still somehow won the contest - that would pretty well underscore the lack of "popularity," then, wouldn't it?

Getting back to the real subject here, the ethical impropriety of selling a news series, I am basically flabbergasted. The slogan "Live, Local, Interactive" doesn't mean that you do news items just for the sake of getting ad revenue out of a sponsor. I used to say that perhaps it's OK to solicit and credit donations of clothing, decorations and services for the news set and anchors, but apparently that was the slippery slope that let these people end up in the ethical swamp at the bottom of anyone's acceptable news ethics guidelines.

They should be ashamed, and in another day, they would be facing FCC investigation, I truly believe.

In case you think I'm exaggerating the absolute wrongness of this practice, see this article on the website of the Poynter Institute, acknowledged as one of the leading sources of journalistic guidance. The article is three years old, but I can't imagine that the wall between news and sales that had existed for decades has fallen in that period of time. Here's the best, most applicable, quote, with my emphasis added:

Candy Altman also views these challenges from the corporate level as vice president of news for Hearst-Argyle Television. She says the news/sales line ethical dilemma "continues to raise its ugly head."

"Thankfully, our company is very clear on this issue," Altman says, "but I still hear horror stories about deals being made to sell news content that should not be for sale."

(I'm pasting this entire article below in case WWAY realizes that this isn't something they want to brag about, and takes it off their website. I've added emphasis on the key points mentioned above.)

Market Share by Arthur Greenwald: WWAY TO GO: LIVE, LOCAL, INTERACTIVE
TVNEWSDAY, May. 21, 6:21 AM ET

The ABC affiliate in Wilmington, N.C., is finding success with "just right" promotions that involve viewers and rely on the humblest of new media—e-mail.

By Arthur Greenwald

When it comes to new media, small- and medium-market stations face the classic Three Bears dilemma.

Too few interactive features make a station look dated and permit competitors to gobble up online advertisers.

But too much fancy digital content can waste money and staff time, while delivering a minimal boost to ratings and revenue.

But those clever Goldilocks at WWAY in Wilmington, N.C., have got it just right. The Morris Multimedia ABC affiliate has branded itself as WWAY-TV3: Live, Local, Interactive! They achieve all three with a smart and selective combination of old and new media.

To make certain the station lives up to its slogan, General Manager Andy Combs ordered his team to scrutinize every daypart for opportunities to add a local slant and, when possible, an interactive twist. But there was a catch. Combs insisted that each innovation prove cost-effective.

That was just fine with News Director/Senior Strategist Jack Pagano, who set about refreshing both the station’s newscasts and Web site with the most tried-and-true of all "new media"—e-mail.

"We invite viewers to comment on every story, and they certainly have a lot to say," says Pagano. "We’ve been able to build viewer opinions right into the newscasts, in the form of e-mail [excerpts] and direct viewer polls. (Click here and see what WWAY viewers say about immigration reform and other stories.)

"It worked so well," adds Internet Sales and Marketing Director Charlie Bragg, "that we wanted to see what we could do with ABC primetime."

Not long ago, MarketShare asked why more ABC affiliates weren’t leveraging the network’s solid success with Dancing With The Stars. It turns out that this ABC affiliate was, well, WWAY ahead of us.

"We created Dancing With WWAY," says Bragg, "and we built it around two of our most popular news talent: meteorologist Chris Phillips and reporter Stephanie Beecken." In fact, Phillips and Beecken are the only contestants, locked in a running battle for weekly bragging rights.

Although the newsroom colleagues dance in tandem, "our viewers decide each week who"s the better dancer," explains Pagano. "Chris and Stephanie have to learn the same steps as the primetime contestants."

Making sure they do is Babs McDance, a local dance studio and social hall that Bragg quickly signed up as a series sponsor. "Neither was an especially good dancer before starting lessons," says Bragg. "So viewers could really appreciate their progress as they followed along at home."

And follow they did, thanks to weekly news features, which Internet Director Chase Clark repurposed as online videos on a dedicated Web page. Viewer response was so enthusiastic that tomorrow (May 22) the station will celebrate the season finale of Dancing With The Stars with a live event. All of Wilmington is invited to the Babs McDance studio to applaud ABC’s primetime winner and, more important, to cheer on Phillips and Beecken in their final face-off.

It’s like a combination of a local contest and an Oscar Night Party," crows Pagano. "We’ve even lined up another sponsor, Chelsea’s Wine Bar and Eatery, which is donating refreshments for attendees, just as Babs McDance is donating the location."

Whoever triumphs, WWAY has taken steps to ensure that the real winner is Wilmington. In lieu of tickets, viewers are asked to make a donation at the door. "One hundred percent of the proceeds go to the Lower Cape Fear Hospice," says Pagano, who predicts hundreds of attendees.

According to Bragg, this promotion netted the station around $5,500 in new revenue, on air and online, from Babs McDance alone, not bad for the 136th DMA. The station earned added value in the form of increased viewer interest in the newscast and online. There was even a bonus effect: it seems that eavesdropping on Chris and Stephanie’s lessons inspired WWAY viewers to get up and try it themselves.

"We heard from several senior citizen homes that residents were imitating the steps on their own, and even demanding dance lessons," says Pagano. "Naturally we sent out our crews and got some very nice feature stories."

Indeed, the viewer response to Dancing with WWAY was so encouraging that midway through the promotion, the station quickly scheduled another: a Queen For A Day-style campaign with an interactive twist they called Make Your Mother’s Day.

Jump-started with an appealing promo shot at a local elementary school, the campaign invited viewers of all ages to write to the station and explain why their moms deserved a day of luxury. Over 150 responses soon followed, mostly by e-mail, but some by fax and regular mail.

Charlie Bragg’s team made sure that Wilmington’s Top Mom was showered in prizes, provided by the six local sponsors who also spent a collective $3,500 on airtime and online ads.

The station received so many thoughtful entries that despite many hours of overtime, the newsroom staff was hard-pressed to select just one winner. But choose they did, along with six runners-up who received large bouquets, thanks to the extra generosity of one of the sponsors, Azalea Coast Florist.

(See the Make Your Mother’s Day Promo and winning entries by clicking here.)

Just like Dancing With WWAY, the Mother’s Day promotion resulted in a big boost to the station’s Web traffic. So much so that they’re ready to launch a third promotion for—you guessed it—Father’s Day. But the deadline will be a few days earlier so they can once again compliment a Web-based contest with traditional TV production.

"We plan to surprise the winner by presenting the prizes during our newscast." says Pagano. "We’ll knock on the winner’s door and surprise him live on the air."

Which could lead to yet another interactive feature on administering CPR to a shocked father.

Market Share by Arthur Greenwald focuses on successful station promotions of every shape and size. Have you produced the Mother of All Marketing Campaigns? Don’t keep it a secret. Let us share your success with your colleagues around the country. Write to Arthur at greenwald@tvnewsday.com.

Wilmington police step up post-bar patrols downtown

Wilmington Star-News: Police step up post-bar patrols

All I can say, is why has there been such tolerance until now? It's been out of hand for years. I hope this will help de-scent downtown from the aroma of beer, both pre- and post-consumption, and get rid of the more dangerous elements - including those imported from elsewhere and locals who prey upon outsiders, both.

How 'bout them Realtors?

Ted Vaden, the "Public Editor," or ombudsman, at the News & Observer, got snippy about the profession of real estate in answering a question about why the N&O capitalizes "Realtor." And one responder used AP style as a reason for not capitalizing it, incorrectly. Below is my comment in reply.

I agree that the tone of this item is unnecessarily snide.

But, Editor Beth, you know a different AP style than I learned. While I don't have a Stylebook (its proper title, so it's capitalized!) in my hand, this item from the Realty Times puts it the way I remember it, and if you are using lower-case "realtor," rather than "real estate agent," you are not using AP style.

According to the Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual, Addison Wesley, a trademark is "a brand, symbol, word, etc., used by a manufacturer or dealer and protected by law to prevent a competitor from using it." According to the guidelines, editors should "use a generic equivalent unless the trademark name is essential to the story." When a trademark is used, "capitalize it," says the news bible.

To criticize someone else's usage, get yours right

Today's really the day for the Durham newsroom of the News & Observer. A third blog item, from the education beat reporter, gets all snotty about the local school system using a tricky word wrong, arguably. However, the post, School policy uses poor grammar, is itself wrong out of the gate by using the word grammar to gripe about a usage error.

Here's my post in reply:
The error in the item you are so distressed about is not of grammar but of usage - and by calling it grammar you have committed an equal error of usage.

See Lingua ex Machina, from MIT Press:

grammar Not to be confused with socially correct usage. In order to handle novel sentences, we not only need to access the words stored in our brains but also the patterns of sentences possible in a particular language. These patterns describe not just patterns of words but also patterns of patterns. There are three aspects of grammar: morphology (word forms and endings), syntax (from the Greek "to arrange together" – the ordering of words into clauses and sentences), and phonology (speech sounds and their arrangements). A complete collection of rules is called the mental grammar of the language, or grammar for short.

The Maven's Word of the Day from Random House suggests doing what I do - avoiding the word altogether - at the same time it quotes no less literate an author than Saul Bellow as using it the "wrong" way that upsets you so badly.

"Put together the slaughterhouses, the steel mills, the freight yards...that comprised the city" (Saul Bellow).

The American Heritage Dictionary allows that:

Even though careful writers often maintain this distinction, comprise is increasingly used in place of compose, especially in the passive: The Union is comprised of 50 states. Our surveys show that opposition to this usage is abating. In the 1960s, 53 percent of the Usage Panel found this usage unacceptable; in 1996, only 35 percent objected.

So I would suggest you unknot your panties and pay attention to something really important.

Sophomoric hijinks at the News & Observer

The News & Observer's Bull City blog, covering Durham, appears to have been taken over by 8th-graders. One entry today made fun of firecracker-safety tips provided by the Durham Fire Department, and another consisted of an informal contest to write a caption for a photo of a man with his head under the tail of the city's large bronze Bull Durham statue.

I posted the following comments on the blog, and after the second item appeared, sent an email including both of the comments to Melanie Sill, the managing editor, and to Rob Waters, the Durham editor. I received two responses quickly: one from Ms. Sill, telling me that she couldn't reply without knowing who I am, and one from the author of the firecracker item, telling me to lighten up. Interestingly enough, he did that only in a direct email, and not as a comment on the blog.

Following is the email exchange with Ms. Sill:

June 25, 2007, 5:40 PM
TO: Melanie Sill
From: Bella Parola
Subject: Is anyone paying attention to the Bull's Eye blog?

This makes two incredibly juvenile posts on that blog today. Are there no adults paying attention?

RE: Firecrackers: The Silent Killer
Are there any adults paying attention to what you people do over there? The tone of this post is completely inappropriate and downright disrespectful for a newspaper that claims to be doing community service - this is not the Lampoon, nor Weekend Update, nor the Simpsons or whatever ridiculous prime-time cartoon that begat your character above. I think people who shoot off fireworks are idiots, but mass media that claim a public-service mission are beholden to at least try to take these kinds of messages seriously.

RE: Insert clever punchline here
How sophomoric and totally inappropriate for the News & Observer. This kind of photo is fine for internal newsroom yucks, but I don't think there is any reason to share it on the website in this fashion. Grow up.

From: Melanie Sill
Date: 2007/06/25 Mon PM 05:50:31 EDT
Subject: Re: Is anyone paying attention to the Bull's Eye blog?

If you'd care to identify yourself, I might be able to reply to this note.

June 25, 2007, 6:04 PM
TO: Melanie Sill
From: Bella Parola

As I have said before, I fail to see what difference that makes. You were able to reply, by using that handy feature on your email program, and I have received your reply - which indicates only that you choose not to address any issue unless it's presented by someone you can identify. I am not interested in providing comments or correspondence for attribution in the paper (or elsewhere) and so cannot understand why you insist on knowing who I am.

I have no connection to the News & Observer, or to any other media organization, but I do care about the news and about how it is presented. If you care more about identities than the quality of your product, that is not my problem.

From: Melanie Sill
Date: 2007/06/25 Mon PM 06:09:54 EDT

Basically, I think people who send anonymous email are somewhat cowardly, especially when they are criticizing others. I generally don¹t reply.

Date: 2007/06/25 Mon PM 06:23:18 EDT
To: Melanie Sill

You are welcome to that opinion.

I think people who ignore reasonable criticism based on an inapplicable journalistic standard are ivory-tower snobs.

What difference would it make if my actual legal name were Bella Parola or Jane Doe? You don't know me, and you are not being asked to verify that I am a credible source of information in a published news item. I alerted you to inappropriate material on your website, which requires you only to click on the link and see it for yourself, not to validate my credentials.

Obviously we are on opposing sides of this issue, and I will not bother you again.

Leaping before an onrushing train

RE: Leaping before an onrushing train

This is a very interesting trend. However, I will quibble with your use of the statistic of the number of suicides in Japan vs. the U.S. Raw numbers from one country to the next rarely make for a meaningful comparison - while the rate, dividing the number into the population, does.

I also disagree strongly with your apparent alarm about families who receive a 'sizable insurance payout' from a train-track suicide being required to pay for the resulting delays. Who would you prefer to pay? And why would we not want to give those hellbent on self-destruction, and who are also insured in order to provide a reward for it to their survivors, a good reason to avoid flinging themselves in front of a train? I would think any way to reduce that particular method would be welcome. Carbon monoxide in a parked car isn't pretty, but only a very tiny number of first responders and/or family members are traumatized by it, while hundreds or thousands witness the train-flingings and many thousands are affected by the resulting delays.

Jousting a little with a much brighter light

G.D. Gearino, the late lamented columnist at the News & Observer, on his website Words Assembled Well, makes a couple of interesting points today about the Nifong spectacle and about journalists and political contributions. He is a heavyweight in the world of verbal sparring, but I don't mind a quick turn in the ring with him. Fortunately, I don't particularly disagree so it's not a real fight, more like trying to keep up the rhythm he started at the speed bag. (That was a long and interesting boxing metaphor, especially when you consider I detest boxing.)

Here's my reply to his post:

Thank you for making clear a mostly unmentioned meaning of the Nifong spectacle. I'm still too mad, and mulling over what how many others have to say about the lacrosse/Gell (as a glaring example, of course not the only instance) conundrum, to have written about it myself. Clearly, the impact of the prosecutorial misconduct is more severe in capital cases - but I believe that ardent supporters of the lacrosse players labor under the worldview wherein people of their class suffer equally, when they are inconvenienced or discomforted temporarily, as do lesser mortals when they are executed or incarcerated wrongfully for the bulk of their adulthood. There is a real belief that people of their station in life are of inherently higher value, and infinitely higher sensitivity. The same dichotomy is also visible to a more ridiculous extent in the discussions of the "persecution" of Paris Hilton.

I would quibble mildly with your assessment of the media political contributions. Don't most media employers prohibit any political activity, certainly including participating in a campaign in any way, on the part of the journalists (if not all employees) in their employ? I find it conceivable that people with strong political views hindered from expressing them in that most visceral of ways, by giving their own money to a candidate who they believe will pursue their views, may be more likely to sublimate those views in their work - not necessarily intentionally, but perhaps with the same result.

While most journalists adhere to the credo of objectivity, and many try hard to remain apolitical, things do change from the beginning of a career through the later years of it. Living and observing and caring all lead to the formation of beliefs more basic to one's being than mere opinion about current events - and while you have said you are a conservative and I definitely am not, I think we both, along with many others who use words to make a living, have no choice but to reflect our beliefs.

That said, I do tend to disagree that there is a liberal media bias - the values of the journalists being nicely balanced, and perhaps overbalanced, by the views of their corporate employers. And I don't think an analysis of media member's political contributions can prove it either way, because of the ban on contributions I mention above.