Reading the Charlotte Sun Newspaper

Ignore the bad head and go straight to the Staff Writer’s first two sentences: Tonight the Arcadia City Council will give a first reading to an ordinance regulating temporary sales of motor vehicle. The ordinance is to specifies regulations applicable to temporary sales of motor vehicles because of the impact on surrounding land uses.

It’s not the typos that dismay (but see below, anyway). It’s not the prepared agenda decked out with a “staff writer” byline that appalls. It’s not the legalese copied straight from the government e-mail that makes us sigh, or even the writer-induced syntactical chaos. It’s not even the issue — which has generated what passes for controversy in these parts — presented without attribution, without a comment from anyone affected, and without evidence of research or background.

What makes me sad is people who don’t learn from their mistakes. Two weeks ago, John Lawhorne wrote about a proposed ordinance and erroneously called it an ordinance. The newspaper ran a nice correction, pointing out a proposed or draft ordinance isn’t an ordinance until the powers that be vote, count the votes and find a majority in favor.

Here we go again. It’s too much trouble to type the word “proposed.” Who cares? Not DeSoto Sun editors and staff stenographers.

Old Word Wolf isn’t a page designer, photographer, illustrator or artist — but she knows what she likes. She likes photos in the morning paper to tell a story (“stand-alone art”) or enhance the reporter’s effort. This morning’s front page art does neither.

In fact, it’s been doctored beyond recognition. Somebody at the Charlotte Sun took a perfectly adequate (if trite, by now) picture of NYSE brokers and dropped out the background. The doctoring eliminated context, created fuzzy black halos around everyone’s heads and hands, and left one guy making an obscene gesture at the empty sky while the middle man watches the finger — is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it art? It certainly isn’t journalism. And what’s with the black patch? What’s supposed to be a snapshot of the Big Board’s Dow-Jones rally, looks like it’s about to fall painfully into the right figure’s forehead. No one’s safe.

SUN PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY AMORETTE ZINDLE Specialist James Denaro, left, handles trades at the post for Morgan Stanley on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday.

All other AP photos describe the guy on the left doing his thing, and none say he did it Monday. In fact, based on the number and variety of similar photos of Denaro released by the AP, I suspect it was taken last week. What the AP cut line says is: “Specialist James Denaro, left, handles trades at the post for Morgan Stanley on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Monday, stocks rallied…”

Bad editing — on so many levels.

The headline over Charlotte Sun’s top story this morning, an Associated Press piece by Ben Feller, tells readers:
“For Bush, last 100 days to feature ‘no letting up.’” I defy anyone in the tri-county area to read this story and tell me who actually said the administration’s last 100 days would be characterized by “no letting up.” The headline uses this quotation, but no such words appear in the story.

The story’s first quote is President Bush saying he’s got a lot of work do between today [last week] and when the new president takes office. There’s no evidence he said there will be “no letting up.” The story’s second quote, by a Bush staffer: “I suspect the last 100 days are going to feel more like the first 100 days than any of us would have hoped.” That insight, essentially a non sequitur in this piece, isn’t even close to “no letting up.”

And finally, the only other quote is actually a paraphrase rendered without quotes: a staffer expects no drama in the end-time. In three dozen words, he says nothing in particular — and nothing specific about “not letting up.”

I suspect the story may have been trimmed a bit, which doesn’t let the local headline writer off the hook. A headline opinion derives from some source within the story. If it doesn’t, readers must assume it’s the headline writer’s opinion.

There’s a lot in this story that’s weak, soft, mushy and just plain silly (for one thing, it predicts the future), but we’ll stick with the local effort: First: Editors shouldn’t write their opinions into a headline. And: Editors shouldn’t make stuff up. Corollary: Editors shouldn’t use their opinion to make stuff up and then pass it off as someone else’s speech.

Update: The editor e-mails OWW. The AP story moved with the suggested head and the Sun ran it. The problem is, the Sun cut the story from the bottom. The deleted last line reads: Said Gillespie of Bush: “People will not have any doubt that just because he’s at the end of a second term, he’s not letting up at all.”

Cutting the source of the quote is bad. Worse is running the quote without checking it against what the guy said. No, the quote wasn’t fabricated by the local copy desk. But it wasn’t checked, either.

Venice Gondolier Correspondent Gerald A. Rogovin appears to have copied — plagiarized — some old news from a piece that appeared in the New York Times last August.

Rogovin is identified as a correspondent with The Venice Gondolier, a newspaper produced by Sun Coast Media Group. The story is about citrus greening, a deadly crop disease.

Here’s the evidence of Rogovin’s plagiarism and his editor’s carelessness in failing to check on a writer who clearly fails to appreciate the ethics of putting one’s name on something he didn’t write — and then submits it for publication, anticipating a paycheck for his effort.

David Karp of the New York Times (August 26, 2008): “The world’s most destructive citrus disease is threatening the groves of Florida, the largest domestic producer of these fruits. The disease, which obstructs the flow of nutrients in citrus trees, originated more than a century ago in southern China, where it was named huanglongbing, or “yellow shoot disease.” It also goes under the common name of greening, because many fruits remain green and are lopsided and bitter. Infected trees die within several years. The form in Florida is associated with a bacterium, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, that is transmitted by a tiny insect, the Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri), which thrives on young citrus leaves. Since it was first recognized in the United States — near Miami in 2005 — the disease has spread across Florida. Timothy R. Gottwald, an epidemiologist with the federal Department of Agriculture, has projected that virutally all the sate’s citrus trees will be infected in 7 to 12 years.

The methods now used to control the disease — spraying to kill psyllids and removing infected trees — have proved inadequate. Many farmers are not replanting because young, vigorous trees attract psyllids.

To save their $9-billion industry, Florida citrus growers have shifted money to a huge research program from advertising. Spending will triple to $20 million next year and support more than 100 research projects, said Mr. McClure, who is chairman of the Florida Citrust Production Research Advisory Council.

[snip]

Oranges and grapefruits, Florida’s main citrus crops, are susceptible to greening, while lemons and some limes seem tolerant, said William Dawson of the University of Florida. Breeders would like to hybridize new varieties fully resistant to greening, but have not identified any resistant citrus species for making crosses, which would take decades to bear useful results. [...] Most scientists think the most promising long-term strategy is to transform commercial varieties genetically to make them resistant. [...snip]

Gerald A. Rogovin, Venice Gondolier Correspondent: “Almost all of Florida’ citrus trees could be infected with the world’s most destructive citrus disease in seven to 12 years. … The disease, which obstructs the flow of nutrients in citrus trees, first appeared in this country near Miami three years ago and has since spread across the state. It originated more than 100 years ago in southern China. The Chinese call it “yellow shoot disease.” Florida’s citrus growers gave it the name “greening” because many fruits remain green and are lopsided and bitter. Infected trees die within several years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

A tiny insect that thrives on young citrus leaves transmits bacteria that kill the trees. Spraying to kill the pests and removing infected trees is not working. As a consequence, many growers have stopped replanting because young vigorous trees attract such pests.

To save the state’s $9-billion industry, citrus growers have shifted money from an advertising budget to one for research. Spending will triple to $20 million next year and support more than 100 research projects.

Those University of Florida scientists say that oranges and grapefruit are susceptible to greening. Lemons and some limes seem tolerant.

Breeders would like to produce hybrids of new varieties that are fully resistant to greening, but they haven’t identified any resistant species for making crosses. That, they say, would take decades to bear useful results. The most promising long-term strategy is to transform commercial varieties genetically to make them resistant.

After deep-sixing “Arcadian” in favor of generic “Our Town” banners for the various local fronts of America’s Best Community Daily, the old name is suddenly resurrected this morning.

Old Word Wolf rattled the pages in delicious anticipation of real, local news. She snapped the crease out of the fold and … gasp! … the top local news is Clinton and Obama had a debate — in Cleveland.

Oh, well. OWW challenged the cubs to a breakfast debate about “local” and heard a quick consensus: If it has a Cleveland dateline, it isn’t.

Those Pesky Five W’s, Again …

Ever the optimists, the folks in charge have handed “Police Beat” to John Lawhorne. Not one of our ace reporter’s entries in this much-read section includes mention of “when” except one. It’s the fifth item in Neighborhood Watch: “A caller reported his boat had been tied to the docks and it was gone this morning.” Now that’s timely news.

Why is OWW so grumpy about this? Here’s why: One of this morning’s timeless items reports “a truck was reported to have hit a pole with wires fallen onto the road.”

Ignoring the awful grammar, readers legitimately wonder if that happened yesterday, the same day most of south Florida suffered a power outage. Folks south of Arcadia endured a three-hour blackout — but they have no news about whether this was the result of the truck hitting the pole down the road or was part of the regional news story. The Five W’s help readers make sense of their little corners of the world. OWW will continue being grumpy until Lawhorne learns this little bit of journalism.

In the Zone …
Charlotte Deputies set speed, light-running zones Let’s see: a 55 mph zone is where we travel 55 miles an hour; a pedestrian zone is where we walk; a school zone is near a school. The cereal set can be forgiven for giggling at the sleepy, careless copy editors who repeatedly (as in every single week) post headlines that says exactly the opposite of the facts. Accuracy anyone?

Quite a pile of papers has stacked up since I’ve been gone, so it’s hard to know where to begin.

Last Tuesday, Charlotte Sun editors ran what’s essentially a one-source story, offered up by two men claiming to be uncle and cousin to a man whom local cops have charged with kidnapping and killing a young mom. The writer, a city editor, gives no explanation for why one of the men calls the suspect his “ex-nephew,” so the reader is left to guess from the very start about blended and broken family ties and the hard feelings that almost always fester from family splits.

The uncle (ex-uncle, I guess) said he had not seen the suspect in more than a year and had a vague idea that, prior to the homicide, he might have been living somewhere in Michigan or a small Florida town about an hour’s drive north of here. Despite these tenuous and distant connections, the reporter gives uncle (ex-uncle) center stage. Uncle’s soliloquy is a catalog of family innuendo and a litany of what should be instantly recognized as libel – probably overlooked because the suspect has already been convicted in a two-week trial held in the newspaper’s pages.

NORTH PORT – Harold Muxlow Sr. says he hopes he’s wrong, but he fears ex-nephew Michael King, who has been charged with the murder of Denise Amber Lee, may have harmed other women.
…“I pray my gut instinct is wrong,” he said. But I’ve told police to check in Michigan and Homasassa … for missing persons.”

A couple of paragraphs later, ex-uncle’s son says the suspect came by the house to borrow digging equipment. He could see a woman in the car’s back seat; he heard her yell “Call the cops.” But he didn’t.

“I was used to my cousin having wacky girlfriends and telling tall tales, so at the time I thought this was a spat between the two. My mother had told me things his mom said about him and his psycho girlfriends. He was just a bad judge of women he dated.”

None of the story’s information, assembled by North Port City Editor Elaine Allen-Emrich, seems to have been verified. Family agendas are aired without question, accusations and libel go in a juicy headline, and professional standards lie in a shallow grave, along with the victim.

Editorial Reading-Attention Span …

… should span, oh, say, at least two sentences. Here’s a fire-in-the-diner story:

No damage was reported [... the restaurant] was closed Thursday for repairs.

The cutline reads: A DeSoto County Homeless Coalition census team [...] tries to make contact Wednesday with the residents of a structure that could qualify as homeless under federal standards.
Dear Jon: Structures aren’t homeless; people are. Grammar is your friend, but you must learn how to aim those relative clauses.