Some Free Advice

The Maven can't decide. Sloppy? Lazy? Poorly trained? For whatever reason, the news copy churned out by media outlets in Fort Wayne is, at best, poorly done. There are the predictable spelling and 'cut and paste' errors. Grammar suffers daily. In addition, story structure and basic who, what where, why and how are often missing.

Some of the most egregious infractions occur when the media attempts report on what our elected representatives have been doing with our tax dollars. So, as a public service, direct from the AP Style Book, here's a little help:

So, for those of you who think the Maven sits around in a drunken haze making this crap up, I offer you The AP Style Book as a trusted source of guidance found in newsrooms across the nation. 

Oh, and if you are writing news copy, and you've never heard of or read the AP Style Book and Libel Manual, you might consider going back to answering the phone, and opening the mail.