Monday, March 29, 2004
Verbs: It's Whats for Dinner.
The New York Times has an interesting piece on Fox News Channel's Sheperd Smith, who refuses to use verbs in his nightly telecast. Some highlights:
Mr. Smith, let it be known, does not like verbs. Whenever he finds one, he crinkles his brow in disgust like a man who has discovered a dribble of food on his tie. He taps furiously at his keyboard, moves the cursor to the offending word and deletes it, or else adds "ing," turning the verb into a participle and his script into the strange shorthand that passes for English these days on cable news:
"Amazon.com celebrating a birthday! The Internet company 10 years old."
"Texas! A school bus and two other vehicles colliding in Dallas. The bus rolling over on its side."
"Outrage in the Middle East! A vow of revenge after an assassination and reportedly threatening the United States. Tonight — how real the threat?"
But, at the bottom of the first page, this:
Sandwiched between the right-leaning, opinion-heavy programs "Special Report" with Brit Hume and "The O'Reilly Factor," Mr. Smith stands out at Fox as a political agnostic, at least on the air.
First, why does the NYT feel the need to label the two shows sandwiching "Fox Reports"? There is none.
And by doing so, the NYT labels "Fox Reports" as the same. Heavy-handed journalism.
7:46:00 PM
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