02 January 2007

[media] When All Else Fails, Blame the Graphics Guy

Update and Correction: It would appear that I got things a bit backwards: it's wasn't Obama that had the "accidental" s, but "Osama" that had the "accidental" b.

Either way, it's shameful for CNN, but then, shame doesn't seem to be on the menu at the major news organizations as much as cozying up to the powerful does so, hey, it's all good.

And whilst I'm (still) on the subject, what really burns me up is that, if I got it right, one of the excuses is that the "b" is so close to the "s". Fortunately I have a keyboard to hand (what are the odds!?!?). One can imagine the feeling I'm getting as I compare the locations of the two keys.

What are they typing with, a battle-axe? Can't they come up with better excuses...well, that question answers itself, I'm afraid.

And Wolf Blitzer's still a putz.

End Update.

706 This one really sets my teeth on edge.

We all have had our little chuckle about how that nutty network CNN accidentally put an s where the b in Obama goes.

Oh, ho, ho, such slapstick funsters they are. Irrepressible!

I mean, please. However, there is an upside here; I no longer wonder what sort of a fool The Most Trusted Name In News™ takes me for; obviously first class.

Mind you, I'm no longer surprised or even depressed at the sloppiness and lack of aptitude exhibited on a more or less regular basis by everyone in the media who is supposed to be telling me the truth.

But this "we can't tell Obama from Osama" joke got old midway through the first telling. A news operation thier size and they can't even make sure the spelling of one of the most visible figures in current American public life is correct? And after the last several years of lazy reporting they wonder why people from both sides think they're in bed with each other's enemy, and why most people trust blogs more than broadcast?

But what really got my goat was, as it was reported in the linked article,

The network referred to the headline a "bad typographical error" by its graphics department.Well, thanks for that insight. Wonder what a good typographical error is?

Of course, the lesson to be learnt here is that having a graphics department to blame means never really having to say you're sorry. They did apologize to Sen. Obama, who, I understand, accepted the apology.

I'm not quite that forgiving.

Wolf Blitzer's a putz, by the way.

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4 comments:

LeLo said...

I wonder if with this season's Apprentice the "graphics department" will have finally fixed the correction of the hash mark to a curled apostrophe. I cringed all through last season's opening credits, partially just watching to see if someone ever caught it, and they didn't.

A typographer's nightmare. ****Shudder***

Samuel John Klein said...

I never did get the "Apprentice" habit, so I never caught that. It's interesting that you should bring it up, in as much as a media consumer you caught it, but the media professionals didn't catch it or didn't bother. I have a little trouble believing that a visual arts team of that magnitunde just let it go.

Good Eye.

Bet you cringe at gratuitous, misplaced apostrophe's...;-)

If so, good on you.

LeLo said...

They haven't caught it this season. It's still there. Just thought I'd let you know.

;)

Samuel John Klein said...

Well, then...

...they're fired.

B-)