The Local News Cliches Viewers Most Abhor
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a funny piece on the tried-and-true cliches that come out of local anchors’ mouths, such as “Check it out,” “You’re not gonna believe…” and “We can tell you.”
TV critic Rob Owen takes it a step further, bouncing the hackneyed newsspeak off Pittsburgh’s various news directors. The results might surprise you!!!
Here’s what WPXI’s Mike Goldrick says about “Details just ahead.”
“Of course they are. We’re supposed to have details,” said Mr. Goldrick, who arrived at WPXI as news director in December. “It’s a tease. We’re teasing you with the most obvious information. A lot of that stuff is easy or it’s [done] by rote. You fall back into those old traps, but it’s certainly not anything we encourage.”
Goldrick says he’ll aim to tone down the teases on WPXI.
“We’re not going to try to do something obvious like ‘We’ve got details.’ We’re going to try to make a promise of some coverage that has some significance,” Mr. Goldrick said. “It should be something we can own, ‘Here’s what we did and why you need to watch our version of it.’ But the reality is sometimes those are the last things written, and when you’re going on the air in five minutes, you go back to the old standards. But by fall, I don’t think you’ll hear that again.”
Mavrick commented:
That's a genuinely impressive aswner.
Mario500 commented:
I would never force a rule upon the world's news writers about having first names and last names together after the first reference, as I would be setting an example on my own for others to follow. Having first and last names together after the first reference would also avoid first-name only references if more than one person in the news article shares the same last name.
If the persons' first names are unusual or uncommon and all readers have are their last names after the first references, they would have to look back. Having first and last names together in further references would save them time in their pursuit to get to know the subjects. Such an idea may appear time-consuming for the news writers, but they would be doing a good service.
pjb commented:
Mario--Let me get this straight: You think when Michael Malone writes Mike Goldrick, then refers to him as Goldrick later, while also quoting from the Post-Gazette story that calls him "Mr. Goldrick" that some readers might think it's rude (or unhelpful)that B&C just called him Goldrick? And that if you ran the world, journalists would have called him Mike Goldrick throughout the article? Wow.
Try your way of doing things with any story and you will quickly see how stilted it sounds. Obviously, the Post-Gazette has a formal style for second references to people (as does tThe New York Times among others), while B&C (and many, many newspapers and magazines) does not. It seems pretty unconfusing to me.
But we'd like to know what you think. We'll have team coverage to follow up with more details as this ongoing controversy develops. One thing's for certain. Only time will tell. Now, back to you in the newsroom, Mike...Tell us what you're working on for your next post.
Mario500 commented:
In the quotations from the newspaper article, the subject is referred as "Mr. Goldrick", but the writer of the post simply used the last name alone after the first reference to Mike Goldrick like many news writers. Some readers may find the poster's secondary reference compared to the newspaper's further references rude or even unhelpful for readers who like to learn people's first and last names (even if it's a short first name).
I would use first and last names together after the first reference to a person in news-related articles and they would never suggest any partiality toward the person.