Bad newspaper writing hurts my brain, like (insert indecipherable description of something else that may or may not hurt one’s brain here)
By William M. Hartnett on Dec 2, 2007 in newspapers
No, seriously, reading so much bad writing in Sunday papers across the country really does make my brain hurt. The problem, of course, is that Sunday is newspaper ego day. We saved up all week for this right? Time to roll out the thesaurus! But not the dictionary. The No. 1 rule of “good” newspaper writing is this: Any word, particularly any adjective, can be used however the writer chooses, even incorrectly. Especially incorrectly, in fact! It just has to feel right.
Yes, the awards committees are really going to be blown away by our awesomely furious fusillade of … oh, man, I can’t even do it in jest. If self-indulgent newspaper writing annoys a self-indulgent newspaper reporter this much, imagine how much it annoys readers. My request of all working and aspiring newspaper reporters: Read B.R. Myers’ essay ‘A Reader’s Manifesto’ and think it over. That’s all I ask.
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