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Phillip Blanchard	Post subject: Mostly Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 1:54 pm
Joined: Sun Apr 07, 2002 1:01 am Posts: 8342 Location: Bethesda, Md.	The Juarez victims are mostly slender, long-haired and pretty, between the ages of 14 and 20. Mexican authorities estimate that 258 women have been killed; nearly 100 of the slayings were sexually motivated _ the victims were raped, strangled and had their necks broken. (AP)<p>***A wag notes: "*Of course, if they were fat, short-haired and pretty damn ugly, well, that wouldn't even rate a story."***
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RimRat	Post subject: Re: Mostly Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 8:45 pm
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2003 1:01 am Posts: 131 Location: South of Detroit	I have to assume the wag was being ... well, waggish. Anyone looking at the headshots of Vancouver's missing women would have a different opinion. (Something over 50 and counting, mostly from the "seedy Downtown Eastside", as it's known.<p>By the way, what's your opinion of this kind of descriptive reporting? Is it appropriate? Would the same kind of information be used if, say, the slayings were homosexual, to describe male victims? Or is it justified to build a profile of a serial killer.
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mslayter	Post subject: Re: Mostly Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 9:12 pm
Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2003 1:01 am Posts: 63 Location: Taxation Without Representation	This sort of information is important so that pretty girls will know their best bet is to marry young and never leave the house, lest they attract the attention of a serial killer.<p>Because everyone knows serial killers are the biggest threat to women's safety.
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RimRat	Post subject: Re: Mostly Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2003 6:06 pm
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2003 1:01 am Posts: 131 Location: South of Detroit	Good answer. Not the one I'd expected, though.
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mslayter	Post subject: Re: Mostly Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2003 6:15 pm
Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2003 1:01 am Posts: 63 Location: Taxation Without Representation	What do you mean by "build a profile" though? Who's building the profile? The police? Is it really newsworthy to comment on their attractiveness? If so, why? Who will find this information useful? Is it so the pretty girls will know to be on the look out, and the plain girls can relax?<p>My two cents: There's a huge sexual titilation factor at play when most news organizations cover serial killer cases. That the girls and women being preyed upon in this case are conventionally attractive makes it even more sexxxeee.
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"This is like group therapy with prisoners in the Poynter Institute's dungeon." ... "You take a vocation that the simple-minded consider to be mere drudgery, and you exploit every bit of fascinating and humorous nuance imaginable." ... "Delicious" ... "Ask your professors? The only professors whose opinions matter are named Walsh, Blanchard and McIntyre." ... "What I come here for, I can find ONLY here. Phillip, you've built a great place." ... "Nothing gets us hotter than reading bitchy discussion threads from over-exhausted copy editors endlessly debating the merits of "theater" versus "theatre." ... "I love this site. It's better than the Kool-Aid acid tests." ..."I'm awed at the efficiency with which matters of opinion get hashed out in this forum." ... "Phil is the bomb!" ... "I'd wager that it's exactly your sort of hidebound thinking that contributes to the problems newspapers are having attracting readers." ... "I'm totally obsessed with this site. It's like porn--if you get off on Scrabble." ... "It reveals the backstage carping and vindictive emotions that roil the souls of those trapped at the copy desks." "When they say "testy," they certainly mean it. Whether it's reporters, editors, or the general public, no one is above their savage snark." ... "An apparent crack in the thin grey line." ..."Testy Copy Editors is a bitchboard for journalism's underclass." ... "My desire to read 'Testy Copy Editors' is only rivalled by my desire to pop "Constipated Call Girls" in the DVD player." ... "Phillip Blanchard is not just a testy copy editor, but a prophet scorned in his own time, and those of us who defend wordplay will be punished for it come the Judgment Day." ... "Phil Blanchard is as dashing in person as he is at the TCE board." ... "As far as writing and editing go: Read this board, read Bill Walsh, memorize the style book, read William Zinsser, and read the New York Times. That's a good start." ... "You should let go of your bitterness. You were not the oppressed talent you thought yourself to be. You were a miserable, brooding, silent, joyless grind, lucky to have a job at the Sun-Times, and we're lucky now that you've moved on to afflict others."

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