Awards Mean Little Except To Those Receiving Them

The Maven "congratulates" WPTA ABC21Alive for their most recent "award". 

Nice work, kids.
Looking at WPTA ABC21Alive's announcement online, one has to conclude that SPELLING was not one of the criteria for their major award. 

OK, so it's a "small" spelling error but the Maven is reminded of a quote from former anchor/diva/regional Emmy winner Alexis Gray who chided critics of WPTA ABC21Alive's sometimes sensationalized breaking news coverage by saying that "facts don't matter during breaking news...our newscasts save lives". So, the Maven has to conclude that nuisances like spelling, grammar, and punctuation don't matter as long as they are saving lives. Got it. 

In case you're wondering what incident prompted the "facts don't matter ... our newscasts save lives" response can be seen in the Twitter posts from the day of the incident.

Some Old Guy That Used To Work Here or something...

Full disclosure: Charly Butcher was not only a friend of the Maven, but over the years he was also a valued source for stories about the local media in general, and his own station, in particular. 

So, it was rather disappointing that when WOWO officially announced the recipient of the 2022 Charly Butcher Student of Integrity Scholarship...WOWO misspelled Charly's name. Charley, instead of Charly.

The gaffe not only appeared in the headline of the story, but throughout the body copy of the story on the WOWO website. 

The Maven acknowledges that the writer of the story probably joined WOWO after Charly's untimely death, and never had the pleasure of knowing and working with him. But still. This is the guy who helped restore WOWO's image and return the station to a position of prominence in the market. The least you could do is spell the man's name correctly. 

The original story from the WOWO website is below:

• Local News

2022 Charley Butcher Scholarship recipient announced

By

 Ian Randall

 -

May 19, 2022

 

Photo supplied/Sarah Butcher

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WOWO) – Mary Jones was named the 2022 Charley Butcher Scholarship Student of Integrity and will receive a $2,000 scholarship.

Jones will graduate from Adams Central High School and will be a freshman at the University of Saint Francis and plans to study communications. She is also a state delegate for the Indiana FFA, role model for Drugs Free Adams County and chapter officer for the Business Professionals of America.

The Charley Butcher Scholarship is awarded as part of the BBB of Northern Indiana’s Students of Integrity. It is named after the legendary WOWO broadcaster who died in 2018. It is awarded to a student in either communications or education, as Charley was a supporter of both fields.

Sarah Butcher, Charley’s widow, was at the presentation and is pictured with Jones above.

How Do You Spell Yamaha?

You are writing a news story involving a motorcycle wreck. 

The brand of motorcycle is a Yamaha and you are not sure how to spell Yamaha.

Do you
(A) Phone a friend?   (B) Make something up? or
(C) Look at the damn photo to see how the manufacturer spells it? 

At WPTA 21Alive the spell-check is disabled. At WANE TV, they don't use it.