Snarky Thought of the Day #280, Reporting the News

Ah, the mainstream media, or MSM as it's known.

It's full of bias.

Fox, OAN, and Newsmax on the right, and MSN on the left.

But what about the neutral news sites, those can be trusted to provide us with the best information, right?

Sadly, no.

Sometimes little things set me off, and this is (unfortunately) one of those moments.

A moment where something so easily fixed was (a) written, (b) approved, and (c) published.

Actually, I'm not so certain about the (b) "approved" part, because in today's 24-hour, non-stop online news schedule, pushing content over facts is important, which means editors generally don't take the time or effort to, you know, EDIT an article before publishing it.

(I mean, it's not like "edit" is right their in their title, "Editor," right? Oh, wait.)

So, even when you're not getting slanted, biased news, you're still getting stories filled with stupid.

And that hurts the whole of society.

Maybe not a lot, but that constant drip-drip-drip of dumbing us down wears away at us like water over a stone.

Journalism is dead.

Huzzah.

#news #reporting #writing #edit #editor

[betsygray]

Standards of journalism and the use of English in UK is as shockingly bad as it is in the US ...😩

[samach]

Gonna watch this short fewer than five times, because I agree with what you said.

[BS-vxdg]

So, so true. Young people used to have to write to be journalists, but today they are just "journalists". But fear not, the writing will likely improve, even if only marginally, when ChatGBT replaces these twits next year.

[hvfd]

Thank you. Although I unlike my sister-in-law, I don't have a degree in english. When we get writing like this, it needs to be poited out.

[johniii]

This is getting crazy this stuff even happens.

[skidmark]

They say "fewer than five" to give it an air of not being a bunch of arrests. They dont want people to think it was a conspiracy.

[patricianeubert]

Police arrested…
a person of interest, or
a couple of people = two, or
several people = three

[jackstraw]

Thanks I didn't know about that one.

[bonniepark]

Here is a hello from the Midwest, Dan. Goodbye.

[yoyo-djbv]

News that creates more questions than answers. 😂 I watched this short few times to make sure I am not the only one question news lately.

[aliceblue]

People no longer know what words mean. And then there is sentence structure. I'll take AI if it's the only kind I can get. But that is scary too.

[teddycuda]

Reporters are not professional anymore; it's why I don't watch news any longer. I have difficulty with "writers" who can't write, so I don't read a lot either.

[jgcelliott]

Semi-literate is the latest thing, don'cha know...
.

[tiffanycoulthurst]

That's because STUPID is taking over. There is a reason I insist on learning at least 1 new fact everyday. I refuse to let my brain turn into mush, lol. And thank God for comedy. Keep doing what you do.

[jasi]

"A small boulder the size of a big boulder"... lol

[Raven.flight]

Crappy journalism is just the norm these days.

I've seen sentences that have 'then' instead of 'than', and use poor spelling etc. It truly amazes me.

I 'get' that the average person may not necessarily know that they are using the word incorrectly when they use 'then' instead of 'than', but for crying out loud, journalists are supposed to be wordsmiths. It's their JOB!

It's like having a mechanic who thinks nothing of putting diesel fuel in a petrol car.

[alexainie]

Haha! I hate the "more than" sentences that use weird random numbers more passionately than the "fewer than" sentences simply because with those the writer most times could have been specific.

Like "Her closet contained more than 57 pairs of boots."

Oh. So FIFTY-EIGHT, then. Or can you only count to 57 so you had to stop there?

Right.

I hate a lot about how things are written these days. 😂

[b--]

"Jesus goddamn christ.." 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[BenedictThambiah]

Stupid sells and in America it sells out really fast.

[TCCole]

It seems to be a trend. I have read more useless articles in the last year than in the previous 50. Either worded oddly or lacking anything noteworthy or both!