View unanswered posts | View active topics

Page 1 of 1

[ 5 posts ]

Previous topic | Next topic

Author	Message
Phillip Blanchard	Post subject: Well, there was this train .... Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 11:47 pm
Joined: Sun Apr 07, 2002 1:01 am Posts: 8342 Location: Bethesda, Md.	[I]The accident apparently resembled a disaster in Iran on Feb. 18, when runaway train cars carrying fuel and chemicals derailed, setting off explosions that destroyed five villages. At least 200 people were killed. ... [I]<p>... AP reported deep in a story about the rail accident in North Korea, after several paragraphs that made it clear than no one has any idea what happened.
Top

SeaRaven	Post subject: Re: Well, there was this train .... Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 12:01 am
Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2003 12:01 am Posts: 1112 Location: An undisclosed alpine meadow	(c) 2004, The Washington Post TOKYO, April 23 - A massive explosion at a railroad station in North Korea on Thursday reportedly killed and injured hundreds, possibly thousands, of people, destroyed homes, administrative buildings and spewed debris for miles, according to U.S. and South Korean officials. <p>Geez, that's rough. Each casualty is not only dead but wounded on top of that.<p>Make it "killed or injured," but save the "and." It's needed later in the sentence, although its exact placement depends on whether "spewed debris" was really "destroyed," as the story would have us believe.<p> ---<p>[ April 23, 2004: Message edited by: SeaRaven ]</p>
Top

ShiningPath	Post subject: Re: Well, there was this train .... Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 12:14 am
Joined: Thu Aug 28, 2003 12:01 am Posts: 63 Location: Chicago	<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr> I know North Korea's a fair-sized lump of real estate, but is the lid really so tight that no one knows where this happened?<hr></blockquote> Everyone knew where it happened -- Ryongchon, near the Chinese border -- but it wasn't worth putting in the lead of this story, since few American readers have recently vacationed there. What's happening in North Korea is important to our lives, since the regime there is both reckless and nuclear-armed. The fact that they won't let Western reporters into their country should not force American journalists to ignore news events there. I am impatient with people who complain that the news from North Korea is so scant and second-hand. We could make it a lot more believeable by soft-peddling the weak sourcing and just pretending that we're sure what's happening there. Cautious sourcing is honesty. The story is important. Let's accept the fact that there's no film footage and Kim Jong Il won't be on "Larry King" tonight.<p>[ April 28, 2004: Message edited by: ShiningPath ]<p>[ April 28, 2004: Message edited by: ShiningPath ]</p>
Top

Display posts from previous: All posts1 day7 days2 weeks1 month3 months6 months1 year Sort by AuthorPost timeSubject AscendingDescending  Previous topic | Next topic

Page 1 of 1

[ 5 posts ]

What They're Saying

"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."

Useful Links

Our 2003 ACES Handout
Our 2004 ACES Handout
Our 2005 ACES Handout
Our 2006 ACES Handout
Our 2009 ACES Handout
The Slot (Bill Walsh)
HeadsUp: The Blog
John McIntyre
Regret the Error
Banned for Life

TCE RSS Feed