Bad ‘spell’ for TV news
Apr 25, 2013, 3:15 PM
You know, lately I may be considered a traitor by some of the people in the local broadcast industry.
A few days ago, I joined a number of critics of the television news business for the inexcusable errors that were made in the coverage of the Boston bombing. I say inexcusable because most of them were made in haste, attempting to beat the competition to a story.
However, reporting live and spontaneously any breaking news story is a very tricky thing that often leads to mistakes. But constantly misspelling written material that has been composed over time and run past several people before it appears on the TV screen is totally outrageous.
Just this week, in a local news story about a religious group, their name was misspelled. As a local member of a Sikh Temple was commenting on religious violence, he was identified as a “Sihk.” You know, you don’t have to be a member of that faith to spell it correctly. Just check it. Perhaps you think that some of the things I say may be stupid, but they’re never misspelled.
I’m Pat McMahon.
