Where do these "journalists" get their education?

[KA1ZGC]

Reading through the newswires, I see a report sent out from the Sheboygan Press about a garbage truck causing a power outage when it struck a "guide wire", pulling one pole over and breaking another, "which was left leaning to one sign but did not fall".

Guide wire? Leaning to one sign?

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I would expect one of the pre-requisites for a journalist would be to have a sufficient grip on the language to be able use the correct words, not just words that sound somewhat like the correct ones.

Of course, that's why papers have editors, right? Appearently not, since this is just one example from just one paper of careless, sloppy writing that shows up all over the media. They rush to get the story out to such an extent that they don't even check their spelling and grammar, so why should I believe that they spent any time checking their facts?

Oh, well... just another reason to beleive nothing you hear from any news outlet: they make their money from circulation, not accuracy. I feel bad for any journalist who takes two minutes to proofread their story or confirm their facts, they must not stay employed for very long.

Apologies to the journalists in this forum, but this is a very bad trend and shows no sign of improvement.

--Thom
Killer Agony One Zipper Got Caught

[W1UJR]

Oh, well... just another reason to beleive nothing you hear from any news outlet: they make their money from circulation, not accuracy. I feel bad for any journalist who takes two minutes to proofread their story or confirm their facts, they must not stay employed for very long.

Apologies to the journalists in this forum, but this is a very bad trend and shows no sign of improvement.

--Thom
Killer Agony One Zipper Got Caught

We're just reaping the results of "Outcome Based Education", excuse me, "Edumacation".

If professional educators were paid for performance rather than for political correctness this world would be a much better place. I weep for those who graduate from this system and then must go compete in the world economy.
It seems we have lost sight of the basics, science, math, and yes, even proper English.

When “Ebonics” can actually be considered a “language”, and the heroes of the younger generation are violent rap criminals, you know we are in deep trouble.

[Ed Nesselroad]

Never attribute to malice that which can more adequately explained by stupidity...or maybe laziness.  Looks like the editor deferred to the spell check function.  Spell checker has no problem with guide wires or the poles leaning to one sign.  It is Sheboygan, right?     

[WA1GFZ]

I heard a wheel talking a few days ago. It seems they are interested in 3 grads from uconn.
Not bad for a school with 15,000 kids.

[W1RKW]

I wish I still had the email thread I had with WTNH here in CT regarding their poor web postings of the news. I'd love to share that in this thread but I deleted it a month ago.  I went round and round with the people down there.  I guess they got tired of dealing with me.  Eventually I got a phone call from the president of WTNH and he promised to improve things, which happened for the most part.  They still make some mistakes but for the most part they improved.  To make a long story short the news stories seemed incomplete as if they didn't proof-read. Grammar and spelling usage was horrible.  I'd walk away many times and I'd think to myself what the hell did I just read. 

The article below appeared in my local paper yesterday highlighting dopey journalists.

State Developing Radio Device To Link Emergency Disaster Workers. 
Published by The New London Day
By PATRICIA DADDONA
Day Staff Writer, Waterford
Published on 1/9/2006

By this summer, an invention by six emergency officials from across the state could enable their colleagues from different towns and agencies to communicate over previously incompatible radio systems at the scene of a disaster.

The inability to talk across systems has been one of the major obstacles Homeland Security officials have been trying to overcome ever since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Dubbed STOC, for “on-Scene Tactical Operations Channel,” the device is a combined receiver and radio in a box that can take a message transmitted on one radio bandwidth and send it clearly and without interference to a different bandwidth, said Wayne Sandford, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.

The state has set aside $2.1 million in Homeland Security funding for the device, and has already obtained licenses from the Federal Communications Commission, Sandford said.

Federal, state and local public safety agencies currently use many different types of portable radios that operate on different bandwidths. Those bandwidths — of 150, 400 or 800 megahertz — carry different amounts of information and can transmit only to a radio using the same bandwidth, Sandford said.

Police and fire officers carrying different types of radios often cannot talk to one another at the scene of a disaster like the InterRoyal mill fire in Plainfield in April or the Monsanto fire in Stonington three years ago — both of which required mutual aid from neighboring towns.

Now, the all-volunteer Interoperable Communications Workgroup, led by Chairman Michael Varney, a fire chief in Ellington, has created a device that can incorporate five frequencies into the three different bandwidths. Varney is also an analyst in the state Department of Information Technology.

Using parallel frequencies, a firefighter on a 150-MHz band radio can send a message to a radio using a different bandwidth and be heard, Varney and Sandford said.

What the STOC device will do, said Varney, is “add capacity to existing radio systems and increase the number of agencies that can talk to one another. This adds at least three different talking groups per incident at basically no cost to the municipalities. This capability doesn't exist today.”

By connecting public safety workers in the field, Varney said, STOC “increases coordination, prevents delays, allows workers to get help faster, and the incident runs safer. Knowing people can talk directly to one another, there's no miscommunication. Communication is immediate.”

For instance, if traffic were being redirected following a major oil spill on the Gold Star Memorial Bridge over the Thames River, said Nicholas DeLia, the fire chief in Groton City, STOC could take a message from a radio in the hands of a Groton police officer and transmit it to a radio used by a New London police officer.

“This is for the ground-level guys,” said DeLia, who is involved in emergency planning in southeastern Connecticut, “the guys that are shooting the foam, controlling the traffic.”

Sandford said, “The beauty of the device is, we don't have to buy more radios, because (emergency officials on scene) use the radios they already have. All they have to do is program the new frequencies into their radios.”

The state's new device could become a model for the rest of the country, Sandford said.

“We're the first state in the nation that the FCC has even heard from” on this subject, he said. “If it works, and we think it will, the FCC is going to promote this across the country.”

Last year, the state bought I-CALL/I-TAC radios for every town in the state. Like STOC, the I-TAC allows direct communication, but special radios had to be purchased and can only be used by commanders, not emergency workers at the scene, state officials said.

The consequences of having firefighters, police and ambulance workers on the scene who cannot talk directly to one another are profound, and dangerous, as the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks made all too clear, local emergency experts say.

Roger D. Sylvestre, chief of fire and emergency services for the Mashantucket Pequots and a local leader in emergency planning for southeastern Connecticut, said the state committee's invention could prove critical in months to come.

“That's a really good deal if they can pull that off,” he said. “What you wouldn't have happen is what happened at the World Trade Center, where police knew something that firefighters didn't know. The police could see into the building, that the structure was starting to fail, but there was no method to communicate that readily to the firemen,” who were trapped inside.

The device works only on portable, 3- to 5-watt radios. Using low-powered radios within a quarter of a mile of one another prevents interference, Sandford said.

The devices could not be used to link all fire, police and emergency medical officials at once, Varney added. In fact, that would not be desirable, he said.

“You don't want too many people on one channel. Then there's not enough air time,” he said.

Varney's committee members developed the idea for STOC from continuous conversations about improvising techniques, Varney said. They then built a model and demonstrated it could work. The state has issued an informational request for proposals, and once it gets a workable prototype, will put the concept out to bid, Sandford said.

“I don't know that one person (on the committee) had that ‘aha!' moment,” said Varney. “It happened over time, came out of a lot of conversations.”

The STOC device may eventually be used to link municipal emergency workers to private security forces like those from Pfizer or Electric Boat, Sylvestre said, and could help coordinate experts from various agencies into a single team when special expertise is needed.

If development goes as planned, STOC devices could be in the hands of local officials within six months, Sandford said. The state will have to see how much a single device costs and then try to distribute them equally across the state, so that all towns in all five of the state's emergency zones have access to them, he said.

“Ideally, it would be nice to be able to have one of these in each municipality,” said Varney.

On a completely different issue, if my memory servers me right, we amatuers have radios that can do crossband linking and do the same thing that they're talking about and cost less than $500.

[KA1ZGC]

Never attribute to malice that which can more adequately explained by stupidity...or maybe laziness.

I didn't. I was complaining about stupidity and laziness.

Looks like the editor deferred to the spell check function.  Spell checker has no problem with guide wires or the poles leaning to one sign.  It is Sheboygan, right?

Oh, I know that. Still, I'd like to see the spell-checker that can take a mis-spelled version of "side" and get "sign" out of it. Even the MICROS~1 spell-checkers would have caught the grammatical error. The letter "N" is nowhere near the letter "D" on the QWERTY keyboard, so someone still had to write something stupid for the spell-checker to make it even more stupid.

You'd think an editor would get paid to do more than run MICROS~1 spell-check on a submitted article, though. Maybe I'm just in the wrong business?

I guess I'm just an old-fashioned guide, just a little on the young sign. 

--Thom
Keep Away One Zealous Grammar Cop

[Jim, W5JO]

Go on over, on out and on through the door to find the answer to your question.  I forgot on in.  These phrases are kind of like going missing gone missing, etc.

[John Holotko]

As far as the "guide" wire goes that is probably what the reporter thought it was called. Reporters often botch up stuff like that and screw up terminology,particularly when it comes to technical subjects. Somebody probably said "guy"  wire and the reporter wrote down "guide" wire, not being knowledgeable and not knowing better thought that's what it  is called.   

As for the "left leaning" pole that probably refers to some ultra left wing liberal who was conducting a pole in nearby while waving a sign and  st some point decided to subvert the local power system. Probably didn't get the  desired pole results.

So, if I am on an AM frequency can I talk to a radio on all the bandwidths or do I need a special widthband radio ?

[k4kyv]

Over many years I have noticed that EVERY TIME I have ever had firsthand knowledge of a news story, the newspaper report botched some of the details, got some of the facts wrong, or used wrong terminology somewhere in the description.

Around here, "guide wire" is a commonly misused  term.  It could be added to the "You just might be a redneck if..." series.

Actually a valid term, dating back to the days of sailing vessels, is often used by knowledgeable old timers in these parts, even though we are hundreds of miles from the coast.  The term is "stay."  Here is the definition per Dictionary.com.

stay (n.)


   1. Nautical. A heavy rope or cable, usually of wire, used as a brace or support for a mast or spar.
   2. A rope used to steady, guide, or brace.

So technically, "guide wire" might be a logical use of the word, but according to the conventions of our language,  it is not properly accepted terminology.  I would place it in the same category as CB lingo.

[w1guh]

"Never attribute to malice that which can more adequately explained by stupidity...or maybe laziness."

One of my favorite expressions.  Anyone know who first said that?

[KB2WIG]

A lot of newspapers heave there corespondents enter there stories write into a computer which typesets the stories fore them and that? is why an editor does not seas the miss take his people newspaper prints with  HIs spell checks and gram more important too get the ideal cross before other media out lets's    ...... klc