Ferrari Mailing List: Re: stupidity of the press

[Red5hilser (Red5hilser]

Hey Rick: Pardon my boldness here, but I feel that I must weigh in here.  (or 
as cLyDe would say, way in here.)
 
Your brother's professor was right. You write to the level of  the reading 
audience that you're both trying to inform, while being  entertaining.
 
Your brother just took the wrong course. If he rally wanted to learn  the 
craft of good writing, he should have taken courses in creative writing,  etc, 
not journalism, which in some cases, teaches writing on deadline.
 
If you work for a newspaper, or write for the TV industry, you write at the  
8th grade level because that's what our fine educational system is churning 
out  by the millions. Those ignorant (not stupid) slobs are the ones that are 
putting  food on your table and paying your bills, get it?.
 
Would you expect some Joe Average, when he gets up in the morning to pay  his 
good hard earned money to have (to him) a technical manual that he can't  
read delivered to his front porch? And without his daily dose of Paris,  Brit, 
or 
Lohan? No way, Jose'!
 
Two of the most important things any newspaper has to offer the  reader are; 
(1) Give the customer a product that is factual, entertaining,  and helpful in 
his/her daily lives, and (2) Give the customer a product in a  timely 
fashion. Believe me, a Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper is of no value to  a 
person 
who has it delivered at 5 am one morning and is thrown at 7:05 the  next, 35 
minutes after he left for work.
 
No readership means no advertising, which means no newspaper. None of this  
'Build it and they will come' bullshit. It's just that simple.
 
The second part is where I came in. I used my J-School experience, plus my  
years of  to work with the editors and reporters to develop smooth page  flow 
programs through the pre-press production areas, to insure on-time press  
starts for several large metro newspapers. You can't expect on-time press 
starts  
when half the pages are released to press 30 minutes before roll deadline. The  
editors thought so. <g>
 
In fact, I had an editor that I worked with in Tucson, tell me that when he  
went to the L.A, Times, and they instituted a page flow program very similar 
to  mine, it was a snap for him because of his prior experience in Tucson. 
Nowadays,  that and $5 will get me a Mocha Java at Starbucks. <g>
 
It's all for naught anyway. A friend just bought a voice recognition  program 
for his computer. No need to write anymore. Soon writing, both good and  
poor, will go the way of the Betamax, and printed-on- newsprint newspapers.  
The 
shame of it all.
 
I remember when the newspaper racket was FUN! The clatter of dozens of  
typewriters, the noise of the teletype machines, the bottle in the bottom desk  
drawer, the roar of the presses, and the one time that I actually got to yell  
"STOP THE PRESSES!" at the L.A. Herald-Examiner. What a thrill.
 
Yer pal, (looking for somewhere high to hang this rope) Bubba, stuck  in 
Bismarck Arkansas
 
 
In a message dated 1/18/2009 12:05:51 A.M. Central Standard Time,  
misc [at] 308systems.com writes:

Hey, 8th  grade is rocket science.  In my earlier life, we wrote  technical
reports and ran them through a grammar check program set at the  3rd grade
level....

Mark Lueker
308 SYSTEMS  Inc.
970-282-7006
www.308systems.com

-----Original  Message-----
From: Rick Lindsay [mailto:rolindsay [at] yahoo.com]
Sent:  Friday, January 16, 2009 3:16 PM
To: Mark
Cc: The  FerrariList
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] stupidity of the press


Clyde  wrote,

> I am watching the live news conf
> These reporters  are asking stupid questions

Because they ARE stupid!  My brother  decided to get a second degree in
journalism because he likes to  write.  He quit the program because he was
required to write at the  8th grade level.  Nothing more elegant or in depth
was  permitted.  The sad thing is, they wouldn't write that way if it  wasn't
the highest level that the majority could understand!!!

I  didn't see the conference but I'm sure the reporters were asking  ignorant,
leading and inflammatory questions.  They won't be happy  until they can
persecute someone.  Read: Make the  news.

rick



> Subject: [Ferrari] stupidity of the  press
>
> Writers for the Associated Press penned,
>  "Investigators brought in a giant crane and a barge
> Friday to help  pull a US Airways jetliner from the Hudson
> River, and survivors among  the 155 people aboard recounted
> tales of horror and hailed the pilot  as a hero who delivered
> them from certain death."  And while I  agree with the
> sentiment, I wrestle with the logic.  How can one  be saved
> from CERTAIN death? Not to mention the world's  longest
> run-on sentence.
>
> rick
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