[Scan-DC] "Shuttle Bus" wreck on 95

[Ed Tobias]

Yep, I’m the ET from AP, but now retired, and before that WTOP and WASH (when, long ago, it had a news dept).

Yes, AP broadcast copy, designed for state or regional distribution, would probably not include a specific location.  However, AP newspaper copy should.

More importantly, a local radio or TV station with a news department, even a one-person newsroom, should be REWRITING any AP copy to include important information that’s missing and/or to customize the story for its audience.  Getting that missing info is Reporting 101.  A short while ago I heard a story on WTOP about a fatal crash that happened on Benning Road, NE.  But WHERE on Benning Road? I suspect that TOP has a lot of listeners who live near Benning Road and who would like to know where this crash happened.  (I’m not singling out TOP...the local TVers are just as bad).

Addressing what Doug wrote; I now live in Ocean City  but my son lives in Darnestown.  When something happens there I want to know the name of the street so that I can determine how close to my son’s address the incident was located.  I don’t think I’m alone it wanting this kind of detail which, as Doug points out, takes only a few words to write and seconds to read.

While I’m on my soapbox...I hate hearing that something happened “in the xxxxx hundred block of xxxxxx Street.”  That’s “cop-speak” not “people speak.” Maybe some know that the 5100-hundred block of Wisconsin Avenue is between Garrison and Harrison Streets, but most would have no idea.  I’ve always encouraged people who worked for me to write that the fire was “near 13th and Massachusetts, NW,” rather than “in the 1100 block of 13th Street, NW.”

Sorry for the off-topic rant, but some of the news guys and gals on this list might be interested in some thoughts from a guy who began his career writing news on a typewriter and ripping copy from a wire that clanged 3 bells for an URGENT, five bells for a BULLETIN and typed out the news at 66 words per minute.

Ed
From: William Nicholson 
Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2014 1:07 PM
To: Ed Tobias 
Cc: Doug Kitchener ; Scan DC 
Subject: Re: [Scan-DC] "Shuttle Bus" wreck on 95

To be fair, that was an AP story, if I recall. It was meant for a broader audience. The details of the exact location on I-95 would have meant nothing to readers outside of the area. On the other hand, the Washington Post, WTOP, etc., would be rightfully criticized for not including that information. If this is the same Ed Tobias I knew of, we worked at the same wire service, in difference places and in different jobs.



On Sun, Mar 23, 2014 at 12:25 PM, Ed Tobias <edtobias at comcast.net> wrote:

  That's a problem with a lot of writing, from various news sources, these days.  They'll report that something happened in Montgomery County, for example, but they won't say where. Or, report a fire on Rockville Pike without a cross street.  They're not thinking "what does the reader/listener/viewer want to know about the story?"

  Ed

  Sent from my iPad


  > On Mar 23, 2014, at 11:35 AM, Doug Kitchener <oldsdoug at yahoo.com> wrote:
  >
  > Lousy writing... article doesn't say _where_ on 95 - anyone know?
  >
  >
  > http://my.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20140323/fc285872-1ddf-4322-a578-d4e0ad4a665f
  >
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