Reading the Charlotte Sun Newspaper

Newspaper interns traditionally trade their cheap labor for the experience of learning journalism first hand. It’s an opportunity to practice their new profession under the guidance of wise and seasoned editors who have a nose for news and can smell a nut graf a mile away.

At the Charlotte Sun, Gabriela Mares is being deprived of that opportunity, and she is paying the price. The publisher has assigned her to his advertorial beat – an unholy junction where advertising intersects the front page. Mares’ job this morning is to make a local builder’s advertisement look like news.

“It took little time to fill 28 units, and with only 58 left, anyone interested in purchasing or leasing one of the Emerald Oaks custom built condominiums should hurry,” runs Mares’ breathless lead. The rest of her fake news story extols kitchen counters, a pool, club house, location – all the details one would expect to see arrayed in the sales literature.

Shame on the Dunn-Rankins and every editor in the building for whoring perverting this young professional’s talents.

Over on the editorial page, the topic is schools’ growing interest in world languages and their move away from traditional Romance-based offerings. The writer apparently has a dictionary phobia because he concocts the neologism “Englo-phile” instead of relying on the well established Anglophile, and he neglects to capitalize Romance (meaning “Roman,” or Latin) because he thinks it’s related to lovey-dovey.

The orthographic errors are minor, however, compared to the writer’s lack of logic and coherence. After pontificating about the importance of breaking away from the usual offerings, his first recommendation is Spanish and his second is French. He lists Latin in his review of modern alternatives. Only as an awkward afterthought, it seems, does the writer work in mention of the truly newer offerings of Chinese and Arabic in local schools.

The editorial, while well intentioned, is clearly a rough-work draft that no one took time to edit or organize — sloppy, careless work from start to finish that simply leaves readers wondering, what’s the point?

Newspaper interns traditionally trade their cheap labor for the experience of learning journalism first hand. It’s an opportunity to practice their new profession under the guidance of wise and seasoned editors who have a nose for news and can smell a nut graf a mile away.

At the Charlotte Sun, Gabriela Mares is being deprived of that opportunity, and she is paying the price. The publisher has assigned her to his advertorial beat – an unholy junction where advertising intersects the front page. Mares’ job this morning is to make a local builder’s advertisement look like news.

“It took little time to fill 28 units, and with only 58 left, anyone interested in purchasing or leasing one of the Emerald Oaks custom built condominiums should hurry,” runs Mares’ breathless lead. The rest of her fake news story extols kitchen counters, a pool, club house, location – all the details one would expect to see arrayed in the sales literature.

Shame on the Dunn-Rankins and every editor in the building for whoring perverting this young professional’s talents.

Over on the editorial page, the topic is schools’ growing interest in world languages and their move away from traditional Romance-based offerings. The writer apparently has a dictionary phobia because he concocts the neologism “Englo-phile” instead of relying on the well established Anglophile, and he neglects to capitalize Romance (meaning “Roman,” or Latin) because he thinks it’s related to lovey-dovey.

The orthographic errors are minor, however, compared to the writer’s lack of logic and coherence. After pontificating about the importance of breaking away from the usual offerings, his first recommendation is Spanish and his second is French. He lists Latin in his review of modern alternatives. Only as an awkward afterthought, it seems, does the writer work in mention of the truly newer offerings of Chinese and Arabic in local schools.

The editorial, while well intentioned, is clearly a rough-work draft that no one took time to edit or organize — sloppy, careless work from start to finish that simply leaves readers wondering, what’s the point?

DeSoto County’s jail was inspected last week by a federal consulting team and Our Man in Arcadia, delivered the initial report by scrubbing his text clean of any mention of the first and fifth W’s, who and why.

OMIA gives no hint as to why the consultants rolled into town. Was it because someone complained about the jail? Was it because the jail is evaluated every so often and it was time? Maybe it was because it’s cold up north and the inspectors needed a Florida interlude. Readers will never know because OMIA isn’t telling.

OMIA also omits any mention of what National Institute of Corrections is. Is this a private group? A membership organization? Not that one would know by reading the story, but it’s a federal bureau: So what is its mission or objective? What government department oversees it? Not that one would know from the story, but it’s a drawer in a bureau run by the Justice Department. Does it fund local initiatives? Are its recommendations mandates? (Strangely, the headline writer got it right – despite Lawhorne’s omission of the word “federal” from anywhere in the story.)

Clearly, it’s too much trouble for OMIA to check out the agency and tell readers where it’s headquartered, how large it is, and if this is its first look at our little town’s jail – or any other detail that might put this jail-review trip into a meaningful context.

Lawhorne does get around to sharing that “most of the jail’s woes are due to overcrowding.” That said, the reporter has an obligation to tell readers what some of those woes are. He doesn’t mention one.

Later in the story, OMIA tells readers the reviewers said local jail staff “performed well in spite of the major problems evidenced under crowded conditions.” For the second time, OMIA has an opportunity to tell readers what those major problems are. Are disease rates up? Is food in short supply? Are there fights among inmates or between inmates and staff? Is drug usage common? Does the roof leak? OMIA teases readers but he won’t tell.

By reading between the lines – Arcadians have to do this a lot – we can sort of guess that the consultants told local commissioners to build a new jail. Nose for News Lawhorne, always on top of the story, reports “there was little discussion about where the money would come from…” Since there was at least a little discussion, Nose for News would actually be doing his job if he reported even that smallest smidgen of this discussion.

Instead of real news on an important topic, OMIA gives us these gems…

“About 10 to 15 percent of inmates are females, at any given time.”
And the rest of the time, they’re men? Maybe shapeshifting is one of the problems that Lawhorne won’t go into.

“On Friday, the consultants met with county and state justice officials …” Given that the lead is they came to town and inspected the jail, this seems like same old news all over again in the third graf.

In other news:

Headline: County seeks fees for emergency services.

Story: The fire chief asks county commissioners two write a local ordinance enabling him to charge some emergency-service users for goods and services. The commissioners say they’ll think about it and table the matter “pending more information.”

Dear Copy Desk Headline Writers: The story doesn’t report the county is seeking fees for emergency services. It reports the county tabled a request. There’s difference. Read the story.

DeSoto County’s jail was inspected last week by a federal consulting team and Our Man in Arcadia, delivered the initial report by scrubbing his text clean of any mention of the first and fifth W’s, who and why.

OMIA gives no hint as to why the consultants rolled into town. Was it because someone complained about the jail? Was it because the jail is evaluated every so often and it was time? Maybe it was because it’s cold up north and the inspectors needed a Florida interlude. Readers will never know because OMIA isn’t telling.

OMIA also omits any mention of what National Institute of Corrections is. Is this a private group? A membership organization? Not that one would know by reading the story, but it’s a federal bureau: So what is its mission or objective? What government department oversees it? Not that one would know from the story, but it’s a drawer in a bureau run by the Justice Department. Does it fund local initiatives? Are its recommendations mandates? (Strangely, the headline writer got it right – despite Lawhorne’s omission of the word “federal” from anywhere in the story.)

Clearly, it’s too much trouble for OMIA to check out the agency and tell readers where it’s headquartered, how large it is, and if this is its first look at our little town’s jail – or any other detail that might put this jail-review trip into a meaningful context.

Lawhorne does get around to sharing that “most of the jail’s woes are due to overcrowding.” That said, the reporter has an obligation to tell readers what some of those woes are. He doesn’t mention one.

Later in the story, OMIA tells readers the reviewers said local jail staff “performed well in spite of the major problems evidenced under crowded conditions.” For the second time, OMIA has an opportunity to tell readers what those major problems are. Are disease rates up? Is food in short supply? Are there fights among inmates or between inmates and staff? Is drug usage common? Does the roof leak? OMIA teases readers but he won’t tell.

By reading between the lines – Arcadians have to do this a lot – we can sort of guess that the consultants told local commissioners to build a new jail. Nose for News Lawhorne, always on top of the story, reports “there was little discussion about where the money would come from…” Since there was at least a little discussion, Nose for News would actually be doing his job if he reported even that smallest smidgen of this discussion.

Instead of real news on an important topic, OMIA gives us these gems…

“About 10 to 15 percent of inmates are females, at any given time.”
And the rest of the time, they’re men? Maybe shapeshifting is one of the problems that Lawhorne won’t go into.

“On Friday, the consultants met with county and state justice officials …” Given that the lead is they came to town and inspected the jail, this seems like same old news all over again in the third graf.

In other news:

Headline: County seeks fees for emergency services.

Story: The fire chief asks county commissioners two write a local ordinance enabling him to charge some emergency-service users for goods and services. The commissioners say they’ll think about it and table the matter “pending more information.”

Dear Copy Desk Headline Writers: The story doesn’t report the county is seeking fees for emergency services. It reports the county tabled a request. There’s difference. Read the story.

The general idea is a headline should reflect the story beneath it. In a similar fashion, an opening paragraph should provide the sum and substance of the news.

Today’s banner promises surprised Arcadians. The lead promises reports of a “conversation among residents” about a rumor that a proposed resort intends to cater to nudists.

So Old Word Wolf eagerly perused this morning’s Big Story for evidence of Surprised, Conversing Arcadians. But all that three writers assigned to the story could come up with were folks of official stripe, none expressing surprise and all but one professing to have never heard of the plan.

The property appraiser is the first to say he doesn’t know anything about the rumor; a former property owner is the second to say he doesn’t know anything about the rumor. The county’s official spokesman is the third to say he doesn’t know anything about the rumor. A county comissioner is the fourth to say he doesn’t know anything about the rumor, although he heard it from “a constituent.” Another county commissioner vaguely remembers being “approached about a year ago by a person associated with a nudist resort,” but “there was never any followup.” The sixth and last official interviewed is Arcadia Mayor Sharon Goodman who comments that a nudist colony “is not something that our community needs.” No one bothers to point out that the rumored resort is rumored to be not in the City of Arcadia.

So where are all the Surprised, Conversing Arcadians? Three Sun staff writers produced this story, the copy desk team read it and composed the headline — and not one managed to note the absence of the Surprised, Conversing Arcadian.

(However, I’ll bet some were surprised to find two churches mislocated to a cow pasture on the map Josh Olive drew to accompany the story.)

The headline over the jump is equally puzzling …

Nude: Terra Sol naturist resort may be coming to Arcadia.

So far, we’ve read absolutely nothing that says zoning changes have been applied for, ground has been broken, or the unnamed landowners have even announced plans apart from a semi-functioning Web site offering a list of proposed amenities that don’t exist. So, yes, the resort may be coming. It also may not. Bad desk. Also Bad Desk because no one who works there asks if any of the reporters called the landowners — an obvious hole in this story about nothing. ==

Two cute kids wrote a news release about their event and it went straight up on the Charlotte Sun’s Web site with nary an alteration. More than the event, the item is the Sun’s daily announcement to readers that it doesn’t worry much about the quality of its product, and anything is good enough for publication. “…Please note these are just the companies donating stock, services or financial help. There are numerous volunteers who have opted to donate their time to make this event function, to who gratitude also is extended.”

The general idea is a headline should reflect the story beneath it. In a similar fashion, an opening paragraph should provide the sum and substance of the news.

Today’s banner promises surprised Arcadians. The lead promises reports of a “conversation among residents” about a rumor that a proposed resort intends to cater to nudists.

So Old Word Wolf eagerly perused this morning’s Big Story for evidence of Surprised, Conversing Arcadians. But all that three writers assigned to the story could come up with were folks of official stripe, none expressing surprise and all but one professing to have never heard of the plan.

The property appraiser is the first to say he doesn’t know anything about the rumor; a former property owner is the second to say he doesn’t know anything about the rumor. The county’s official spokesman is the third to say he doesn’t know anything about the rumor. A county comissioner is the fourth to say he doesn’t know anything about the rumor, although he heard it from “a constituent.” Another county commissioner vaguely remembers being “approached about a year ago by a person associated with a nudist resort,” but “there was never any followup.” The sixth and last official interviewed is Arcadia Mayor Sharon Goodman who comments that a nudist colony “is not something that our community needs.” No one bothers to point out that the rumored resort is rumored to be not in the City of Arcadia.

So where are all the Surprised, Conversing Arcadians? Three Sun staff writers produced this story, the copy desk team read it and composed the headline — and not one managed to note the absence of the Surprised, Conversing Arcadian.

(However, I’ll bet some were surprised to find two churches mislocated to a cow pasture on the map Josh Olive drew to accompany the story.)

The headline over the jump is equally puzzling …

Nude: Terra Sol naturist resort may be coming to Arcadia.

So far, we’ve read absolutely nothing that says zoning changes have been applied for, ground has been broken, or the unnamed landowners have even announced plans apart from a semi-functioning Web site offering a list of proposed amenities that don’t exist. So, yes, the resort may be coming. It also may not. Bad desk. Also Bad Desk because no one who works there asks if any of the reporters called the landowners — an obvious hole in this story about nothing. ==

Two cute kids wrote a news release about their event and it went straight up on the Charlotte Sun’s Web site with nary an alteration. More than the event, the item is the Sun’s daily announcement to readers that it doesn’t worry much about the quality of its product, and anything is good enough for publication. “…Please note these are just the companies donating stock, services or financial help. There are numerous volunteers who have opted to donate their time to make this event function, to who gratitude also is extended.”

There’s a mind-set in the Charlotte Sun newsroom that Web content doesn’t need editing or even reading by a second set of eyes. The result is silliness like this: Man’s house raided, gets seven drug charges. Old Word Wolf hopes the house was able to make bail.

Ans then there’s this one: Texas tops nation’s top 10 growing cities; Florida not on the list.

Over in the head shop: “Wall Street fallout spurs builder hiatus,” screams the front page this morning.

When we spur something, we prompt or prod the thing into action — as when a cowbody digs his spurs into his horse. A hiatus is a suspension of action.

You can’t spur a hiatus any more than you can kick air.

Follow-up File: John Lawhorne, Our Man in Arcadia, failed to ask the county fathers why, in today’s market, they agreed to pay $112,000 for a 50-year-old wood frame house that sits on cinder blocks — $4,000 over its 2007 assessed value. (I’ll bet that has changed!) And, a quick check of the records finds the building was purchased less than five years years ago by its current owner for $75,000. I’d liked the county to buy my house at a 49 percent profit…

OMIA should track the proposed refurbishment project, ostensibly one to provide office space for the building department. The building department claims the half-century old structure can be brought up to code for $28,000. Old Word Wolf doubts this.

The building is not air conditioned and no one expects government workers to toil in ambient conditions. Just installing central air and the windows and insulation to make sure we’re not cooling the yard surely would cost close to that.

Also, having the building department inspect the building department’s work (RFP’s, bids, contracts, execution, etc.) is a clear case of the fox guarding the hen house. … just when citizens need a real reporter on the job.

Money Saving Tip: Ask readers to write “money-saving tips.” Cut out the expense of leaving the newsroom; eliminate the trouble of finding, sourcing, researching, writing, editing and publishing genuine, fact-checked news.

xxxx xxxxxxNew column to highlight readers’ tips
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxBy Nicole Noles
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxNorth Port Herald Editor

From stories of mass foreclosures to recent layoffs in the area, our paper has more stories of economic crisis than any of us really want to see. Of course, it’s our job to report the news as it happens, so we can’t turn a blind eye to the economy or the plight of local residents as they struggle to make ends meet.

To offset recent economic difficulties, many people have discovered or rediscovered new ways to save money.

Aside from the online groups and syndicated columns, there’s a resource we can draw on in our own community — our ingenuity.

So starting next week, we will be running a new column in the North Port Herald called Stretch Your Budget. We’re going to compile local readers’ tips on how they save money in hopes that we can all benefit and save some much-needed cash.

Send your best tips to nnoles@sun-herald.com. Include your name with the tip so we can give you proper credit and let us know whether you would prefer a random list of tips or a set theme each week, such as uses for “paper or plastic bags.”

For the complete column, see Wednesday’s North Port Herald or check out the e-edition.

The operant word is buried in the fourth paragraph: “compile.” Nicole better watch her back; the Dunn-Rankins soon won’t need the expense of an editor to “compile” what readers will already have conveniently written. They’ll compose at least as well as “rediscovered new ways…”

Money Saving Tip: Ask readers to write “money-saving tips.” Cut out the expense of leaving the newsroom; eliminate the trouble of finding, sourcing, researching, writing, editing and publishing genuine, fact-checked news.

xxxx xxxxxxNew column to highlight readers’ tips
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxBy Nicole Noles
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxNorth Port Herald Editor

From stories of mass foreclosures to recent layoffs in the area, our paper has more stories of economic crisis than any of us really want to see. Of course, it’s our job to report the news as it happens, so we can’t turn a blind eye to the economy or the plight of local residents as they struggle to make ends meet.

To offset recent economic difficulties, many people have discovered or rediscovered new ways to save money.

Aside from the online groups and syndicated columns, there’s a resource we can draw on in our own community — our ingenuity.

So starting next week, we will be running a new column in the North Port Herald called Stretch Your Budget. We’re going to compile local readers’ tips on how they save money in hopes that we can all benefit and save some much-needed cash.

Send your best tips to nnoles@sun-herald.com. Include your name with the tip so we can give you proper credit and let us know whether you would prefer a random list of tips or a set theme each week, such as uses for “paper or plastic bags.”

For the complete column, see Wednesday’s North Port Herald or check out the e-edition.

The operant word is buried in the fourth paragraph: “compile.” Nicole better watch her back; the Dunn-Rankins soon won’t need the expense of an editor to “compile” what readers will already have conveniently written. They’ll compose at least as well as “rediscovered new ways…”