Well, at least there is hope for all those kids (30% or so) that come out of primary school deficient in the three "Rs", it means that a job in journalism isn't out of the question after all.
 

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

Proof of time warps...

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

Maybe they were light weight and took a while ...

That's as much the editor's fault as the writer's.

Matt Lorono, CSWP
Product Definition Specialist, DS SolidWorks Corp
Personal sites:
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources & SolidWorks Legion

Then that's at least two jobs for dummies assured.
We ought also to add in the IT dept jobs since they ought to make sure these dummies have all their grammar and spell checkers switched on and in use.
Then they need proof reader.
It wouldn't have happened in the days of hot metal.
Well, OK, it would, but you had defence in depth back then.
Unless they provide the editor with a sketch pad attached to his PC so he can use his red pen, they are in trouble.
 

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

Just saw this headline on Yahoo "Police arrest dozens protesting oil pipeline at White House."  

I didn't know they were planning to build an oil pipeline at the White House!
 

   I didn't know the police protested stuff like that.

               JHG

No.  They just record music.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

To keep the concert schedule straight, here is this weeks line up.

Kansas is playing in Chicago
Chicago is playing in Boston
Boston is playing in Kansas
 

"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

Anything on Alabama, the band, not the state?

Saw this headline this morning.
"Pedestrian struck by Truman Library"
Amazing how an inanimate object would just jump out and hit someone.

there may have been an earthquake.

Quote (ajh1):

...
"Pedestrian struck by Truman Library"

   However unlikely the event, the excuse does get used.

   

Quote:

That tree jumped out and hit me occifer!

 

               JHG

The worst crime of journalism is not just the bad grammar but laziness.
Over on linkedin this article, Drunk passenger drops anchor on cruise ship has caused some comment.

But most such articles are cribbed from other articles or taken from a feed and re-phrased. No one checks the facts or asks the right questions any sane person would ask.

The debate has been culpability.
Alcohol is given as an excuse.
It is suggested he broke into a control room (which?) and as a joke dropped the anchor.

Other reports say he is a small vessel operator.
He was caught on CCTV.
He wore work gloves and spent 12 minutes with a wrench to complete his task.
We have only his word for it that he was drunk. He was identified only from the CCTV footage. Maybe he thought he would get away with it.
Some suggest it was his own work gloves.
No one breathalysed him that we know of and the claim to have been drunk and thought it was a joke may have come from his lawyer (lets not go there) and comes in his plea bargain statement.
This was presumably not the bridge but an unmanned (underway) control station which he forced entry into then took 12 minutes, wearing work gloves, to release the anchor.
According to one source, he left the drinking session, went to his cabin for his own gloves and then navigated his way to the control room.

So we have really dumb reporters who, even when in a trade paper, don't ask the right questions or report anything not reported elsewhere, and who don't give us the full story.

Kiplings six honest serving men appear entirely absent in this modern computer era and no one ever seems to "check the facts" or use their brains.
 

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

jmw,

   Okay, journalists do not understand technical stuff.  

   The stories I read about this were no grossly inaccurate.  Perhaps the guy was not drunk.  Perhaps the access doors are locked most of the time, but this time, somebody forgot.  Perhaps some sailor from some authoritarian third world country was told that the passenger was a good friend of management.  Dropping the anchor of a moving big ship is stupid and dangerous, and the guy should be charged.  

   Drunkenness is not a defense unless the crew held him down and poured it down his throat.

    

               JHG

My point is that we only have his word for it that he was drunk.
If guilty as charged, he faces 20 years.
If he can get away with the "drunk and a joke" plea bargain, he may get probation.
I can't help thinking this "drunk" plea is something he and his lawyer dreamed up for the arrest procedure once he was on shore.
I suspect there are no facilities to breathalyse on board, no blood samples taken and we don't even know when he was identified, i.e. how long after the event.
All questions that occur to me but not the journos. They haven't attempted to consider an alternative to drunken jape or asked any questions.
I bet most only read the wire feed or cribbed from another post.



 

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

I think what you are all really saying is that 'school of journalism' is a contradiction in terms.  

Not sure if there is a causal relationship, but the sharp decline in quality of journalism coincided with the start-up of these purported schools.  
 

I am late onto this thread, but in reading the article in the OP, I was struck by the reference to "she" in the opening of the article without ever introducing a "she".  Then continues to state: "It is one of ours" Malone said.  Who the $%&@ is Malone?  Presumably a NASA spokesperson and a female.

Very sloppy and very poor journalism. Regards to all.

EEJaime