The Wall Street Journal invents its own language

Guest · **Posted:** Fri Jan 17, 2003 5:37 pm

From a story about Fox News head Roger Ailes warning his staff about complacency after the announced resignation of CNN chief Walter Isaacson:"I had to womp them and get them out of a winning mindset," says Ailes. *** I can't find "womp" as anything other than an acronym or an esoteric title in any dictionary or on Google.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Fri Jan 17, 2003 5:41 pm

It's not an invented word, it's a misspelling of "whomp."[ January 17, 2003: Message edited by: blanp ]

Guest · **Posted:** Fri Jan 17, 2003 5:51 pm

That's my point ... you'd think that would have raised a billboard-sized red flag on their copy desk. And yet it slid though uncritically ... amazing for a paper of the WSJ's vaunted reputation.

ADKbrown · **Posted:** Fri Jan 17, 2003 6:16 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Jim Thomsen:
That's my point ... you'd think that would have raised a billboard-sized red flag on their copy desk. And yet it slid though uncritically ... amazing for a paper of the WSJ's vaunted reputation.<hr></blockquote>Well, misspellings do occur.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Fri Jan 17, 2003 6:45 pm

It is hard to get worked up over a misspelling.

Rio · **Posted:** Sat Jan 18, 2003 12:04 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Jim Thomsen:
That's my point ... you'd think that would have raised a billboard-sized red flag on their copy desk. And yet it slid though uncritically ... amazing for a paper of the WSJ's vaunted reputation.<hr></blockquote>Well, when you lay off tons of people and leave the paper understaffed, as The WSJ has done, this kind of thing is going to happen. Let's see how long its "vaunted reputation" lasts in this environment.

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Sat Jan 18, 2003 12:07 am

Well said, Gary.

SusanV · **Posted:** Sat Jan 18, 2003 2:55 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Gary Kirchherr:
Well, when you lay off tons of people and leave the paper understaffed, as The WSJ has done, this kind of thing is going to happen. Let's see how long its "vaunted reputation" lasts in this environment.<hr></blockquote>Amen. Our entire proofreading staff was cut last year, and we now do our own proofreading. We still manage to put out a fairly clean magazine overall, but I've pretty much stopped reading it in published form because of all the things I find after the fact. It's depressing.

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The Wall Street Journal invents its own language

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