Journalism 101 failure writes for Arizona Republic
This article’s lede provides the head scratcher: Five juveniles are in custody in connection with a string of robberies, many of them taxi drivers, that have occurred in Phoenix in the past week to 10 days.
Are the taxi companies now hiring juvenile cabbies, or are the juveniles the robbers?
This is what happens when subscriptions tank, readership is down, and long standing reporters who actually passed basic English, are replaced.
May 9, 2008 at 2:03 pm
This made my day!!
May 9, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Reminds me of the old Patti Page song, “Throw Mama from the train, a kiss, a kiss.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mama_From_The_Train
May 9, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Maybe the reporter is a “migrant?” As in migrating from a high school dropout to a journalist?
May 9, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Too funny! Another great reason to avoid the “Repugnant” as JD Hayworth likes to call it. My 15 year old writes more competently than the example!
May 9, 2008 at 9:55 pm
What a good laugh! Thanks.
May 9, 2008 at 10:30 pm
I tend to enjoy their misspelled headline words. It’s a big bold letter–how did Everybody miss this thing #@$%^&!
May 10, 2008 at 3:27 am
On this lead and others like it, I suspect that such illogically-arranged language is the product of the disciplined liberal mind. It’s the same quality of thought that gives us contortions like “Taxes create wealth,” “All people are immigrants,” and “It depends on what the definition of ‘is’ is.”
Maybe this was a rushed job. Someone told the writer to “Get the lead out,” and this is what resulted…
Just wait till the reporters are non-native English speakers AND reporting from another country entirely! Hey, if it happened in Pasadena, it can happen here…
May 10, 2008 at 4:24 am
This article was a model of disorganization. There is only one sentence not subject to linguistically confused interpretation. It occurs at the very end of the piece.
The byline was AP, which makes me wonder if the AZ Republic has someone talented enough to rewrite it this badly, or just reprinted what came off the AP feed. AP for local news?!? Maybe I was right about that last concern in my previous post…
May 10, 2008 at 6:04 am
…and this from the state’s largest newspaper? I know fifth graders who can construct a more grammatically correct and readable sentence.