Homestead mailing list

["SISU!" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

It seems to me that this is as good a place as any for me to ask a few
Andy Rooney style questions.  None of us have anything better to do
anyway, do we?
My first ponderance is about journalism.  A journalist should write
well, I think.  If you can't write well, you don't major in journalism
and you don't become a journalist, right?
EVERY DAY I read something that sends shivers up my spine on a major
news source (usually CNN or FOX ) website.  Without fail, something gets
under my skin.  Today, it is the story of the Hawaiian earthquake, which
is titled linked "Hawaii quakes, then shakes" on the CNN page.  Isn't
quaking and shaking the same thing?  Or is it a matter of degree of
shaking? Is quaking lighter or heavier than shaking?  Which does more
damage, a quake, or a shake?  I suppose it depends on whether you are
talking about the Earth or a newborn here.  My second irritation with
the article is that it constantly refers to Hawaii island as The Big
Island.  Now, I know, that it is the largest island, and to avoid
confusion, most people refer to it as the Big Island, especially in
speech, but in a news story, I think journalists should be more careful.
 If journalists would explain and clarify, giving background to a story,
and not write one sentence paragraphs to further dumb down the
population, I think it would be better.  I can't tell you how many calls
I have gotten since the quake from people asking me how TJ was
doing(he's fine) because they knew he was on "The Big Island" (he's
not).  Honolulu is NOT on the island of Hawaii, it is on the island of
Oahu.  Pearl Harbor is not on the island of Hawaii, it's right next to
Honolulu on the island of Oahu.    It just irritates the crap out of me
that people don't know geography.  Even if they never learned in school,
they could possibly pick up facts from the news, if journalists would do
their homework and write properly.  I'm no journalist, just someone who
types fast and likes to write out my feelings on things, but I think I
could do better than most people who are employed by the various news
outlets in this country.  I believe it makes the US look stupid to have
such amateurish and simplistic news stories.  Reading the news should be
entertaining, yes, but it should also be informative and thought
provoking, in my opinion.  Why isn't it?  In recent decades, it's been
reduced to nothing more than headline entertainment.  Why do we need to
know that actor Bill Murray washed the dishes at a party in Scotland?
That brings me to my third irritation with online media outlets.  Very
often, almost on a daily basis, you will see under a headline the words
"Developing Story" or "Full Story".  What's amusing is that at least
half of the time, there is nothing more to the story than the headline.
 The headline was the story in a nutshell.  Nothing further to
develop-nothing further to report, yet you are led to believe with a
wasted click of the mouse that there is more to come on another page.
Grrrr.....

Bev

--
BevanRon of EarthNSky Farm   NW Georgia USDA Zone 7
34.498N 85.076W    Bev is Earth, Ron is Sky