Clear, Concise, Uh, Not So Much

The Media Maven is proud to, once again, present the Ambiguous WOWO News Story of the Week:

The Maven's snarky comments are embedded into this journalistic masterpiece....

AN ATTEMPTED ROBBERY IN NEW HAVEN

An Attempted Robbery In New Haven
Created by mmcintyre on 12/26/2013 3:51:27 PM

NEW HAVEN, Ind. (WOWO): An attempted robbery occured today as two men were meeting two other men regarding the purchase of their vehicle.  

Occurred is misspelled. Who is selling the vehicle, the first or second two men?

When the two victims arrived at the scene to purchase the vehicle, they were both confronted by the suspects followed by an arguement.  

It is unclear which pair of men are the “victims” and which pair are the “suspects”? You mean that an argument walked up and followed these men? Oh, and argument is misspelled.

Upon the incident, both victims were pepper sprayed and then shot at.  No injuries were reported.  

What in the hell does “upon the incident” mean? How does someone get assaulted with pepper spray and not be injured?

The first suspects are described as a black male aproximately 6'0" medium build, dressed in black jeans, a black jacket, and a black stocking cap.  The 2nd suspect is described as a black male, lighter skinned, aproximately 5'9" and also of medium build.  He is reported to have a goatee and mustache, also wearing a black stocking cap.  

Now, wait a minute. Does “the first suspects” mean the first pair of men, the second pair of men, or one of the individual men? When you say 6’0” do you mean, “six feet tall”? Does “2^nd suspect” mean the second suspect? Oh, and approximately is misspelled, TWICE.

Both suspects fled the scene in their black GMC Yukon with black tinted windows and no license plate.

If the black GMC Yukon, with the black tinted windows containing the black men with their black clothing and black stocking cap, had NO license plate, how in the world can you authoritatively say it was “their” black GMC Yukon? 

If you have any information you are asked to call New Haven Police.

The Maven is pretty sure that from this news story, the phone at the New Haven PD will be ringing off the hook. 

Social (Media) Responsibility

An alert Facebook friend spotted this today. The Maven has been lead to believe that this is the Official Fort Wayne Community Schools Facebook page. 
Yes, in the corner it really does say "Why The F**K", and the Maven has obscured, somewhat, the obscenity.

A closer look will show that this was posted during the 11am hour yesterday, Monday, December 16th, so it's been on the site for 'a while'.

The moral of this embarrassment for the holier-than-thou administrators of Fort Wayne's most notorious school system is, that if you are going to participate in Social Media, there also comes a responsibility to police your area.

Of course there could be more offensive things on the page, I suppose...like a gun, a Christian Cross, or the American flag.

Is That Mommy's Lipstick?

The 60th anniversary of channel 33's first regular broadcast gave us many pictures and stories about how TV was done in the early 1950's. 

There were no live trucks, no computers, no on-the-scene video. Dick Florea used to tell the story of how the news reporters would carry a Polaroid camera to news conferences and show the pictures on the nightly newscast. 

Weathermen, like Bill Foster, would present the weather on a big, erasable board using stick-on H's and L's, connecting them with hand-drawn warm and cold fronts, and then carefully hand-writing the high, and low temperature, the wind speed and barometric pressure for all to see.

While it's nice to reminisce about the "stone age" of local television, one has to wonder what 21Alive is doing with their Facebook page.

Perhaps it's the Maven, but do you think that 21Alive could find a more enticing, professional-looking graphic to get people to click the link to the story? The yellow arrow is mine, the red blob is theirs.

The Maven also wonders why the paragraph under the picture does not tell more of the story, as opposed to instructing viewers on the fine art of making a comment. 

The story, itself, presents very well....just the gateway link to it looks like something that a toddler would draw using Mommy's lipstick.  

Here is what you would see, if you stopped laughing at the childish and unattributed map to click the link. 

WANE TV - What Year Is It??

Quick! What year is it? 

If you said 2013, then you are overqualified to write a news story for WANE TV. 

OK, it's a cheap shot. One of the things that makes it a cheap shot is that the Maven can always count on WANE TV to embarrass itself, nearly daily, with an error. OK, it's a little error. But, considering the frequency of these little errors, one has to wonder if the people writing the news stories are drunk, ignorant, lazy, inept, or are struggling with English as a second language, since the date of the expected opening, the "spring of 2013", has already past.