There was a news story in the local newspaper, a major paper owned by one of the world's richest men recently that made the curmudgeon in me come out. It was a story about a murder that happened in Prince George's County, Maryland.
The text of the article read in part as follows:
Nader said it appears that the shooter knew the deceased, chased him down and shot him in the food court.
My comments on reading this:
- Shooting the deceased was a little excessive, if he was the deceased, he was by definition already dead.
- How do you chase a person who is deceased?
- Is it murder to shoot a person who is deceased?*
- What part of the body is the food court?
- Is it painful to be shot in the food court? (Well not if you are already deceased.)
Another passage read:
Authorities said they think the attacker fled the scene with a car.**
My Comments on reading this:
- Did he steal a car?
- Was he carrying the car?
- Pushing the car?
- Did he have a tow truck?
* Law students are torchered tortured with that question every year. It is attempted murder if the shooter believed the person was alive when they shot them, even if the person was already deceased.
** https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/12/03/shooting-mgm-national-harbor-hotel-casino-maryland/
Print journalist here all self edit, and it shows. I would have expected the cartoon cancelling newspaper would do better than your example.
ReplyDeleteTorchered? I think it is attempted murder if the person was believed to be alive.
With my self editing, I miss clear mistakes.
DeleteThank you for this! I would have had the identical reaction. And I HAVE when I’ve read “journalism” like this. So many already deceased are being re-deceased! lately. Who knew the foodcourt was a vital organ? Where are journalists like Steve Reed when you need them?
ReplyDeleteThe old drunks from the newsrooms of the past, are aghast.
DeleteEveryone makes mistakes, but these are professional journalists and editors spewing out this tripe. And so many journalists now use “lead” instead of “led.”
DeleteWhat's a newspaper?
ReplyDeleteTears
DeleteHow do you chase a person who is deceased? You put on your running shoes and your lime green lycra tracksuit then you run - not like hell but to hell.
ReplyDeleteIs it murder to shoot a person who is deceased? It depends if he is a resident of Washington Deceased.
What part of the body is the food court? Oh that's an easy one. It's the belly of course.
P.S. Mr Nit Picker tells me that the word is "tortured" and not "torchered". Would it be torture if you were to ask The Human Hamster to kindly be your blog proofreader? That guy rarely makes a mistake.
Good catch, I struggled with the spelling on that word, the edit has been made. I love the Hamster too much to ask him to proof my posts.
DeleteI guess editing is a dying art. Thankfully this line:
ReplyDelete"What part of the body is the food court? "
will have me smiling all day!
Glad to hear, I made someone smile for the day.
DeleteIt was probably written by AI.
ReplyDeleteCould be, maybe an Ai editor would spot the errors.
DeleteI thought exactly as you did when I read that quote from the newspaper.
ReplyDeleteNo editor would have let that by.
DeleteThis had me laughing (which is probably not the reporter's intent). Maybe the editor quit because they didn't want to work for that controlling billionaire.
ReplyDeleteThe staff has been gutted over the past decade.
DeleteOne of my most used aphorisms to friends and foes alike is "Everybody needs an editor".
ReplyDeleteAI at its finest. Because computers do everything better than people.
ReplyDelete