Editorials

NB: This post technically was begun last week. Busy-ness really takes away from productivity, doesn't it?

A "Two Cents" piece from page AA4 of Friday's Tribune:

"Zeke N. needs to get a life"
'Just calling because every time I see Zeke N. in the paper, it's a negative report about the paper. It's amazing that he's always in the paper. He needs to get a life.'
-This amuses me mostly because it's so incredibly true, I can hardly take it. Zeke N. invades every editorial page that he possibly can. I don't mind participation, but when the only things you have to say are the same things every day.....And then you have the person who notices that Zeke is calling in or commenting every day. Hm.

The first paragraph from the front page of the Adventure section, page AA1:

"Rocky Mountain National Park is once again temporarily closing the Lumpy Ridge and Sheep Mountain areas to protect raptor nesting sites."
-Did you know that raptors are birds (cue the giggles)? Because I didn't know that, I had to look it up. Here I was, having flashbacks of Jurassic Park, and all they were talking about were birds of prey. Actually, I'm just a tad bit disappointed. I was hoping for dinosaurs.

A random thing about editing that really bothers me: Not using the last comma in lists of things.
For example:
"But Pinnacol, business groups and lawmakers are still at odds..."
"We should stick to the facts instead of using empty rhetoric that punishes people working, fighting and sacrificing for our country..."
I always feel like I have to say the last two things in the list super fast; which is why, when I write on my own, I always insert the comma. I like to breathe, you know? Get some air in my lungs (or in the lungs of my readers) before jumping to the next line of business.

Story from the Associated Press:
"President Barack Obama asked Congress on Thursday for $83.4 billion for US military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, pressing for special troop funding that he opposed two years ago when he was a senator and George W. Bush was president."
-This makes me think about all of the complaining and finger pointing that goes on when politicians in control seem to suddenly change their opinions or votes on certain issues. I wonder how many people are furious that Obama changed his vote in this case? I mean, that is a rather large chunk of money, right? Of course it is. But one thing that people don't often realize: We change, things change. Guess our president is voting for change!

And my all-time favorite comment of the day (which comes from a long line of comments on an article about an article concerning using racial adjectives in stories):
"Instead of mentioning the emotionally charged "Robbed" or age, race, height or weight for fear of offending someone we'll abandon our job of reporting the FACTS (race, age, height, weight) of an incident and simply be happy that our advertisers and readers aren't offended.
And newspapers wonder why bloggers are the new media.....at least they call it like they see it."
-Oh, good. The bloggers are calling it like they see it. Whew. I was starting to wonder when I was going to get to hear about all of that. And this is coming from a person who enjoys reading blogs. Who enjoys writing blogs. Who doesn't seem to care that very few people see her blog. Yet one must wonder: Is what the bloggers see really so different from what a paid journalist sees? Sure it is. Paid journalists can get their news organizations to fly them to Iraq to do in-depth stories (although if you ask me, the whole "in-depth" thing in that issue is a GIANT question mark of uncertainty), while surrounded by tanks and machine guns.
Not exactly where everyone wants to be, but it gets you the story. If I were going to be a reporter, I would want to be at the front lines of everything, not sitting behind my computer commenting about articles from the New York Times. At least, I like to think I could be brave enough to be that proactive about being unbiased.
Next thing you know, we'll have to start paying to view blogs, what with this monstrous ego I sense growing over the Web.