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I recently complained about the way the media “reported” the shootings at Virginia Tech. Mainly, I had a problem with their use of speculative language and opinion rather than fact to emphasize the story.
In a Chron front page story today, I saw this quote written by jouralist Lise Olsen:
On March 26, the Saturday before […]

I’m a fan of words. I like adjectives and adverbs. I’m a fan of similes and metaphors. But one thing that bugs me is the overuse of words by the media specifically designed to scare or titulate. This is not some rant about the liberal media. I have no opinion […]

I know it seems confusing, but try to follow this logic. The Associated Press released a story explaining that they had placed an internal boycott on stories about socialite Paris Hilton for one week as an experiment.
That experiment failed when the story of Hilton being ticketed was just too good to pass up.
Please note […]

Mainstream television news is rarely as goofy and bizarre as when it is trying to scare old people with stories about the dangers of youthful fads. Take this video, for example, from WDAZ TV in Grand Forks, North Dakota on the dangers of emo.

It alternately reminds me of an SNL skit and a 60’s […]

I was checking out the Chron today and ran across this story. What makes it funny, besides the fact that it was clearly still in the edit stages (guys, you might want to remove the paragraph tags), is the headline:

My question is how are these UPCOMING promotions already popular, particularly when two of the […]

In typical let’s-scare-the-holy-bejeezus-out-of-everyone fashion, the copy editors over at the Chron let loose with this story and headline:
Thousands could die if a giant tornado ever hits Houston
The sub headline was even better:
Experts say toll might surpass the 8,000 of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900
The story goes on to describe what this killer twister MIGHT look […]

In the teaser, they said their top stories will be as follows:
“More baby daddy drama” regarding Anna Nicole.
The patron saint of a local strip club.
Meet the top 24 on American Idol.
What is this, sweeps week?

I love the near panic that ensues with our local media every time a “significant weather event” is even remotely possible.
Hurricanes? They’re all category 5 and 30 foot wall of water will sweep inland 100 miles destroying everything in their path.
Rough weather? Every thunderstorm has at least one tornado in it and chances […]

I’d stop going there just because of the abomination that is their new commercial where they bastardize the Beatles song “Hello, Goodbye” using a whistful Sixpence None the Richer-like arrangement. I can forgive them for commercializing the Beatles. Nike did it with Revolution and others have done it as well. It sucks, […]

I heard about this mass bird die off in Austin today and I wondered if among the dead grackles they found a little Jim Jones-like figure head maybe with tiny little 70’s sunglasses on? Hmmm, maybe not.
At any rate, what I found most interesting was the quote at the end of the story in […]