THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 25, 1996 TAG: 9602240003
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
Recently, one of my ``ombuddies,'' John Cummins, retired as reader advocate for the Salt Lake Tribune in Utah.
In his final column, he wrote that ``perhaps the overriding theme I have heard in nearly five years at this post centered on seemingly little things - typographical errors, misspelled names, grammatical errors, geographical errors. . . .''
That struck a chord. In the past few weeks (or is it years?), readers have barraged us with those ``seemingly little things'' - which leads me to believe they're not so little after all. Implied is that if we don't know our basics, then how can we be trusted with the bigger issues?
Examples cross all boundaries of the newspaper:
Our unquestioning use of a quote stating that ``ice can't get any colder than 32 degrees'' drew more than a dozen science lessons from our readers. We ran a correction the next day but, typically, the letters and scoldings continued to come in.
We confused the Baltics with the Balkans in a front-page story about Bosnia earlier this week. The callers included a Navy man who, like several dozen others, scolded us some months back for running the wrong submarine photo on A1. ``Do y'all need a consultant?'' he asked.
Also offering us his proofreading services was a petrochemical inspector who got his yuks from the recent headline, ``Whale gets stranded on sidebar in N.C.'s Oregon Inlet.''
The late, great whale Freddy ran aground on a sandbar, not on a side-bar. For those of you who don't speak journalese, a ``sidebar'' is an article accompanying the main story.
(And an ``ombuddie'' is just shorthand for ``ombudsman'' or public editor.)
Readers also noticed that. . .
The first sentence of a Sports story about Admirals coach John Brophy mentioned an incident ``between he and a Admirals fan.'' Double penalty for that one!
The ``foreword'' of a book became ``forward'' and ``forword'' in two recent Daily Break book reviews.
A wire story on the shooting of an Olympic gold-medal wrestler by millionaire John du Pont mentioned the NAACP instead of the NCAA when referring to a college wrestling program.
A recent editorial used the phrase ``close proximity'' and a recent column ``close perusal.'' Readers made it clear that, in both cases, ``close'' was redundant. The column, by the way, was by yours truly, the public editor.
The fact that editors probably catch worse than these is little consolation. Deadlines or not, we're making the errors and that's discouraging in itself.
There was a wide variety of other gripes over the past week, among them:
NOT A LOVER-LY HEADLINE. Several readers objected to a headline in The Sunday Break about a couple who had broken up years ago but who were performing together in a piano-cello concert.
The story was ``very interesting and informative,'' said one caller. ``However, the headline, `Ex-lovers in new musical partnership,' chosen by the writer, was in very poor taste and a cheap shot.''
Reporters seldom write their own headlines but I'll admit the headline took me aback, too. As another caller said, ``This isn't Jane Austen's time.''
APOSTROPHIZING. It irritated one man that our Presidents Day stories and ads each had a different way of spelling the holiday, as in ``Presidents' Week,'' ``President's Day'' and so on.
I don't know how anyone is supposed to get it right since even our sources don't agree. The newsroom dictionary, Webster's New World, favors plural apostrophe while the Associated Press Stylebook just uses the plural.
Maybe we should just go back to ``George Washington's Birthday'' and find another holiday for old Abe.
And speaking of Presidents Day, at least one reader wondered what happened to the ``closing box'' that is supposed to tell us what offices and services are affected by the holiday. Oops, looks like we forgot it, again. . . .
THAT OTHER NORFOLK. We've been running regular reports on the trial of John Salvi, accused of first-degree murder in the shooting of two employees at a Massachusetts abortion clinic.
As a help for readers, the stories are usually accompanied by a handy info-box explaining the trial, the Norfolk connection (he was arrested here) and the charges. But there's still one source of confusion:
Why, asked a reader, do we say that witnesses have been testifying in Norfolk Superior Court? Isn't the trial in Massachusetts? It is - in Norfolk County, Mass.
It wouldn't hurt to make that clearer, too.
GLUB (EQ) FLUB. And finally, I can't resist the question raised about a story last month on how our coastline is sinking. At the end of the front-page type, it said, ``Please see GLUB, Page A4.''
GLUB? A reader called and asked what that meant, since it was not in her dictionary.
Believe it or not, that was glub as in ``glub, glub, glub'' - you know, the sound made when someone or something goes underwater.
I'd classify that as a flub. . . .
by CNB