Friday, July 27, 2012
Unprecedented coverage means events hitherto hidden can come to the front.
The 2012 Summer Olympics begin today. Thanks to NBC’s burgeoning stable of channels, plus some insta-channels that recently appeared on my cable guide, an amazing assortment of competition is about to be televised. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of watching the world’s best athletes set new standards for human achievement while sitting on my couch, setting a new standard for continuous ice cream eating. What’s more, thanks to unprecedented web coverage, we are finally to be liberated from the tyranny of prime-time gymnastics and fabrication of inane “storylines” monologued by a droning Bob Costas. Bob, I love you, but endless dissection of minutia about your favored athletes is not exciting. So keep your Phelpses and Lochtes, …
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Ken Ulman co-hosts fundraiser with Howard County official supporting Marylanders for Marriage Equality.
On Tuesday, I received an email inviting me to an event co-hosted by Howard County Executive Ken Ulman and Howard County Register of Wills Byron Macfarlane. The event is “in support of marriage equality in Maryland,” specifically benefiting the umbrella group Marylanders for Marriage Equality. As Joe Biden would say, this is a big [expletive] deal. It’s perhaps not as a big a deal as it would have been a month ago, before President Obama openly declared his support for same-sex marriage. But, still, politicians who have (purportedly) aspiration for higher office publically fundraising in support of same-sex marriage signals a shift in mind-set. (And if Ulman doesn’t run for governor, I would expect a lot of people to be asking for their …
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Everyone seems to have a limp.
I hate clichés. It seems as if you can’t pass two articles without passing four well-worn phrases, wearily looking out at you from the page.; Clichés are comforting and homey for both writer and reader. A foreign story becomes less so (“Hackgate” for the British phone hacking scandal), a confusing one more understandable (the 1 percent catch phrase). They are cultural shorthand, a shortcut that allows a writer to bring the full weight of truism to bear with a minimum of words. They’re efficient. They’re also lazy. A cliché is like an old couch—broken in and comfy. Why leave its comforts for DIY seating? Taking a build-your-own approach to figurative language might result in something uncomfortable, difficult or even (gasp) challenging, to …
Friday, May 11, 2012
What are you reading?
There is frequently a perception that news can be objective, that facts are facts and spin is the province of politicians and, perhaps, Fox News. To a certain extent, this is true; the base facts of a story are bedrock, beyond which further fracking has no yield. How those facts are presented, though, how they are ordered and emphasized, can effectively prime our perception of a given story. A recent Baltimore Sun story boasted an attention-grabbing headline: “Howard school board to give Foose up to $25,000 in relocation costs.” Below, the subhead (aka dek, in newspeak): “New superintendent is moving from bordering Frederick County.” Taken together, these phrases seem designed to provoke. A quick read, the skimming attention usually …
BOH
11:20 am on Tuesday, June 19, 2012
How does it indicate that? Where are you seeing that there is a significant drop between 12 and 13, and how does that compare to drops by students at schools coming out of other districts that perform in that 90% range? There are many other possible causal factors besides the malfeasant manipulation you're alleging, and to be honest, that's a bit slanderous. more ›