Nitpicker's Delight

The Maven has often been ridiculed for being not just a nitpicker, but a world-class nitpicker. 

Guilty as charged!

It's an easy job when local media often puts so little focus on accuracy in order to be the first, fastest, or best-looking news source. 

For example: 

Here are the nits, by the numbers:

1: "stabbed in Fort Wayne's southeast side". First this conflicts with the body copy that states "near the southeast side of Fort Wayne". So, did the stabbing happen within the confines of the southeast side of town or NEAR the confines of the southeast side of town? Further, the Maven could be a real ass and ask: "southeast side? Is that near the spleen or stomach where the stabbing occurred". However, the Maven won't do that. Bad taste.

2: 4:45pm is not "Sunday evening". Uh, the generally accepted definitions of afternoon and evening indicate that evening begins at 5:00 pm. 4:45 pm is almost "evening"...but it's still inaccurate.

Here's a chart that might help in the future:

3: This ties into number 1, above. If you check your Rand McNally, the 3900 block of Congress is CLEARLY withing the generally-accepted area known as Southeast Fort Wayne. Saying it's NEAR southeast Fort Wayne is confusing, and causes concerns that local media might be trying to downplay the reports of violent crime in that area by misstating the local of the crime. 

4: This is a pet peeve. "DISPATCH confirmed..." Which DISPATCH? The Fort Wayne Police dispatch. Fort Wayne Fire dispatch? Three Rivers Ambulance dispatch? DoorDash dispatch? Please be specific. Using the general term of DISPATCH is lazy and does not completely name the official source of the information.  

For contrast here's how the other local TV news operation in town alerted us to the story:

Is WOWO promoting an FCC-Prohibited Lottery ?

Thanks to a couple of Media Maven followers asking if this "promotion" by a local radio station and their client constitutes an FCC-prohibited "lottery" in the form of a contest offering tickets to the Fort Wayne Zoo, formerly the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo. 
In a nutshell, the FCC says a lottery is comprised of a prize (something of value), consideration (money or something of value) and chance (a drawing or other random selection of outcome). 
Here are screen-shots submitted to the Maven. They circled portions of the messages that caused them concern.

What's the big deal? 

Well, the two postings above are ambiguous as to the "consideration" part of a lottery. They mention "trying" the drink, but neither post explains if "trying" the drink requires a purchase. 

Usually promotions like this are required to say "no purchase necessary" (to enter the contest), but that phrase in not included in these posts, nor is an alternate message of "ask us for contest details". Those statements are required as an integral part of ads or postings about a contest. 

Here's a fact sheet from a law firm practicing before the FCC that highlights the three things that the FCC says comprises a "lottery".

Opportunity

Here's an opportunity for our local media to do their jobs.

A study was commissioned to determine if a 60 million dollar "Field House" should be built on the old OmniSource property north of downtown. 

Here's how WANE-15 portrays the funding of the "study":

And here's how the Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne's last remaining daily print journalists, reported on who paid for the "study":

It would be nice if our local journalists could get clarification on who exactly paid for the research and whether taxpayer money was involved.

Why is this important? 

If the City paid for the study, the credibility of the findings of the study/report could be suspect and seen as a justification for moving the project forward.  

On the other hand, if the study/report were paid for by an independent group or organization, those results might be viewed as more "objective".

So, the Maven will wait for the clarification. 

 

Political Activism or Just Plain Whining

WPTA ABC21Alive weather people appear concerned that people's lives will be in danger if the search for government waste and fraud examines/adjusts the National Weather Service budget. 

The story in question can be found here: https://www.21alivenews.com/2025/02/20/concerns-federal-agency-american-public-depends-daily-could-face-doge-cuts/

A local political leader, who brought this story to the Maven's attention, points out that, in their opinion, this story borders on political activism, in that the final paragraph contains a plea from the story's primary source to "to contact your elected officials and make your opinion heard". 

Orignal Thoughts or Astroturf?

Have you ever read the Letters to the Editor in the Journal Gazette, and wondered: "Where do these letters come from"? 

While most of us envision someone sitting at a keyboard, wracking their brain to condense their heartfelt thoughts into a well-written letter full of their own opinions backed up by factual information, it's not. In reality, it's what politicians and media call "astroturfing", manufactured, mass-produced "public opinion" designed to sway the media and their audiences.  

This morning a letter critical of Robert F. Kennedy Jr's nomination as Health and Human Services secretary appeared in print. After reading the letter a few times, the Maven "Googled" a few of the sentences and found something strange. Those words and phrases in the JG letter matched a "write-your-own-letter" template on the MomsRising.org website. Kind of a "cut and paste" way of flooding one's local newspaper with opposition to Kennedy's nomination. 

Here's the letter in the 2/11 JG, the writer's name has been blurred to protect their privacy.

The Maven added the red numbers to correlate with the MomsRising Talking Points below.

Well, here's where it came from:

The Maven is fairly certain this letter will not qualify for the Journal Gazette Gold Pen award for the best Letter to the Editor of the month.