GalacticCactus Forum

Author Topic: I hate journalistic writing  (Read 99662 times)

0 Members and 3 Guests are viewing this topic.

Offline Jonathon

  • Evil T-Rex
  • Administrator
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 24,673
  • This is the darkest timeline
    • View Profile
    • GalacticCactus
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #600 on: July 02, 2013, 09:09:04 PM »
You underestimate my ability to take things seriously!

Offline BlackBlade

  • Deadbeat Dad
  • Super Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 6,029
  • Gifs are all lies.
    • View Profile
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #601 on: July 03, 2013, 08:44:16 AM »
Interesting. That's good to know.
Kyrgyzstan, is the homeland of the Kyrgyzs, a people best known for cheating at Scrabble. -Tante Shvester

What, you expected us to be badly injured or dead, and flying blind to boot? You're the one who told us all to be Awesome. -Brinestone

Offline Porter

  • ruining funny with facts
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 22,332
  • long time lurker, first time poster
    • View Profile
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #602 on: August 01, 2013, 03:04:00 PM »
It makes sense.  You can fit a lot more motorcycles than automobiles into a given stretch of highway.
Tomorrow Poster
Sooner or later, this forum is going to max out on hyperliteralness.

Offline Jonathon

  • Evil T-Rex
  • Administrator
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 24,673
  • This is the darkest timeline
    • View Profile
    • GalacticCactus
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #603 on: August 01, 2013, 03:39:48 PM »
I think it has more to do with low emissions in the case of motorcycles.
You underestimate my ability to take things seriously!

Offline Porter

  • ruining funny with facts
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 22,332
  • long time lurker, first time poster
    • View Profile
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #604 on: August 01, 2013, 06:33:50 PM »
Huh.  I've always been under the impression that their purpose is to increase the throughput of congested roadways, with lower pollution being an added bonus.

I suppose that for some people, those could easily be reversed.
Tomorrow Poster
Sooner or later, this forum is going to max out on hyperliteralness.

Offline Jonathon

  • Evil T-Rex
  • Administrator
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 24,673
  • This is the darkest timeline
    • View Profile
    • GalacticCactus
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #605 on: August 01, 2013, 10:50:29 PM »
And this is why I hate the HOV lanes. I think they're trying to do several things at once and not doing any of them terribly well. I'm really not sure if the main purpose is to

  • reduce congestion
  • reduce emissions (often but not always the same thing)
  • generate revenue (because it's also a toll lane)
  • be an express lane (without a higher speed limit) (and only for those who are doing one of the above)

Tonight we were on our way to a concert, and some idiot in a huge SUV decided to jump in front of us in the HOV lane to get out of a slowdown in the other lanes. I think they ignored the double white lines, and they certainly didn't think of the potentially dangerous speed differential between them and us.
You underestimate my ability to take things seriously!

Offline Nighthawk

  • The White Rabbit
  • Super Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1,812
  • "Omne ignotum pro magnifico"
    • View Profile
    • Walk in the Dark
"When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer..."

Offline Jonathon

  • Evil T-Rex
  • Administrator
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 24,673
  • This is the darkest timeline
    • View Profile
    • GalacticCactus
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #607 on: August 02, 2013, 09:36:51 AM »
"Let's make all of the homepages this, just for a day. It'd make things better."

 :D
You underestimate my ability to take things seriously!

Offline pooka

  • hover bear
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 18,872
    • View Profile
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #608 on: August 05, 2013, 02:18:22 PM »
I was going to post it in the fluffy kittens and rainbows thread, but I forgot. 
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his work."  Comte de Saint-Simon

Offline Brinestone

  • Nerdkins
  • Super Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 6,234
    • View Profile
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #609 on: October 04, 2013, 11:36:00 AM »
This isn't horribly written, but the ambiguity is funny:

"Anderson also said he would focus on paying down the city debt without raising taxes, maintaining services, listening to residents, and working with neighboring city leaders and state legislators to promote the best interests of the local community."
Ephemerality is not binary. -Porter

Offline Jonathon

  • Evil T-Rex
  • Administrator
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 24,673
  • This is the darkest timeline
    • View Profile
    • GalacticCactus
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #610 on: October 04, 2013, 11:57:22 AM »
Awesome. Where's that from?
You underestimate my ability to take things seriously!

Offline Brinestone

  • Nerdkins
  • Super Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 6,234
    • View Profile
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #611 on: October 04, 2013, 12:22:23 PM »
That community newspaper thing we got in the mail yesterday. It had a section introducing the candidates for the mayoral and city council races in Holladay and Cottonwood Heights (this one was for a mayoral candidate for Holladay).
Ephemerality is not binary. -Porter

Offline Jonathon

  • Evil T-Rex
  • Administrator
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 24,673
  • This is the darkest timeline
    • View Profile
    • GalacticCactus
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #612 on: November 05, 2013, 04:03:07 PM »
Check out this overwrought opening paragraph from Newsweek:

Quote
The sun in Bangkok doesn’t shine, it hates. High noon in the world’s hottest city hits like a trashcan lid in the face as heaving, pollution spewing traffic slaughters your breath. Money stays home, and people with just sense find shade. But men like Bung – a Thai street merchant with six children, overdue school payments, and one darkly mounting debt to a Thai loan shark – press into this withering heat, day after day. Driving a precariously strapped, bolted, taped, and jury-rigged motorcycle/café through Bangkok’s labyrinth of soot-covered souls, he sells coffee to survive. Most coffee sellers here worry about being hit by swerving taxis. Bung worries about being crushed by a lawsuit from Starbucks.
You underestimate my ability to take things seriously!

Offline rivka

  • Linguistic Anarchist
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 14,142
    • View Profile
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #613 on: November 05, 2013, 04:24:56 PM »
The whole article is  :sarcasm:-worthy. For instance, the author clearly does not understand that any company that fails to defend its copyright risks losing it. Also, just because he's a "peasant" doesn't make it ok for him to use whatever intellectual property he wants.

I feel for him, but he's still in the wrong.
"Sometimes you need a weirdo to tell you that things have gotten weird. Your normal friends, neighbors, and coworkers won’t tell you."
-Aaron Kunin

Offline Jonathon

  • Evil T-Rex
  • Administrator
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 24,673
  • This is the darkest timeline
    • View Profile
    • GalacticCactus
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #614 on: November 07, 2013, 12:06:47 PM »
I hadn't read the whole thing, but yeah, it's awful throughout. Where do these people learn to write?

Quote
When Bung’s response didn’t exist, . . .

When it didn't exist? When exactly was that? Did it exist at some point, and then it didn't anymore? How about "When Bung didn't respond"?

Maybe it feels a little unfair for a big, faceless corporation to go after a little street vendor, but it's not like Starbucks did anything wrong.
You underestimate my ability to take things seriously!

Offline rivka

  • Linguistic Anarchist
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 14,142
    • View Profile
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #615 on: November 07, 2013, 02:01:16 PM »
Maybe it feels a little unfair for a big, faceless corporation to go after a little street vendor, but it's not like Starbucks did anything wrong.
Yup. And I agree with you on his serious mechanical flaws as well.
"Sometimes you need a weirdo to tell you that things have gotten weird. Your normal friends, neighbors, and coworkers won’t tell you."
-Aaron Kunin

Offline Annie Subjunctive

  • Hausfrau
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 10,921
    • View Profile
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #616 on: November 07, 2013, 02:38:50 PM »
Man, I'm glad my last name isn't Bung.
"It is true, however, that the opposite of Little Rock, Arkansas is Boulder, Colorado." - Tante

Offline Jonathon

  • Evil T-Rex
  • Administrator
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 24,673
  • This is the darkest timeline
    • View Profile
    • GalacticCactus
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #617 on: November 07, 2013, 03:15:33 PM »
Hear, hear. Even if I drank coffee, I don't think I'd drink it from a place called Starbungs. :sick:
You underestimate my ability to take things seriously!

Offline Annie Subjunctive

  • Hausfrau
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 10,921
    • View Profile
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #618 on: November 20, 2013, 08:52:31 AM »
Quote
The labyrinthine cemetery complex stretching for kilometers (miles) underneath northern Rome is known as the "Queen of the catacombs" …

Really? An unspecified length of kilometers is the same as an unspecified length of miles?
"It is true, however, that the opposite of Little Rock, Arkansas is Boulder, Colorado." - Tante

Offline rivka

  • Linguistic Anarchist
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 14,142
    • View Profile
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #619 on: November 20, 2013, 09:08:01 AM »
Well, yes, actually. Not that x and y are equal, but it doesn't say they are.

In the case of both units, they are being provided for scale (not meters but km; not feet or yards but miles).
"Sometimes you need a weirdo to tell you that things have gotten weird. Your normal friends, neighbors, and coworkers won’t tell you."
-Aaron Kunin

Offline Jonathon

  • Evil T-Rex
  • Administrator
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 24,673
  • This is the darkest timeline
    • View Profile
    • GalacticCactus
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #620 on: November 20, 2013, 09:19:37 AM »
I think journalists often run a macro to find instances of "x kilometers", do a conversion, and insert "(y miles)". But obviously it wasn't written to ignore instances where "kilometers" isn't preceded by a number.
You underestimate my ability to take things seriously!

Offline Annie Subjunctive

  • Hausfrau
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 10,921
    • View Profile
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #621 on: November 20, 2013, 09:30:08 AM »
I think journalists often run a macro to find instances of "x kilometers", do a conversion, and insert "(y miles)". But obviously it wasn't written to ignore instances where "kilometers" isn't preceded by a number.

That's what I was thinking. No way a conscious person went in and was like "Oh, the Americans aren't going to understand what kilometers are."
"It is true, however, that the opposite of Little Rock, Arkansas is Boulder, Colorado." - Tante

Offline Jonathon

  • Evil T-Rex
  • Administrator
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 24,673
  • This is the darkest timeline
    • View Profile
    • GalacticCactus
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #622 on: November 20, 2013, 10:04:16 AM »
No way a conscious person went in and was like "Oh, the Americans aren't going to understand what kilometers are."

But a journalist might have.

zing!
You underestimate my ability to take things seriously!

Offline BlackBlade

  • Deadbeat Dad
  • Super Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 6,029
  • Gifs are all lies.
    • View Profile
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #623 on: November 20, 2013, 02:46:40 PM »
:D
Kyrgyzstan, is the homeland of the Kyrgyzs, a people best known for cheating at Scrabble. -Tante Shvester

What, you expected us to be badly injured or dead, and flying blind to boot? You're the one who told us all to be Awesome. -Brinestone

Offline Jonathon

  • Evil T-Rex
  • Administrator
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 24,673
  • This is the darkest timeline
    • View Profile
    • GalacticCactus
Re: I hate journalistic writing
« Reply #624 on: November 21, 2013, 04:06:00 PM »
I usually make fun of journalists, but the first sentence of this article is pretty great.

Quote
In the Wasatch County town of Wallsburg, the city employee responsible for oversight of elections brought new meaning to the job description by overlooking the election altogether.
You underestimate my ability to take things seriously!