Heck of a fire!~

[Bureau Chief]

Doesn't anybody proof read their stories anymore? I see examples nearly every single day where some story has major typos because of "cut and paste" errors or they simply didn't read their work over when completed. Heres part of a story out of Florida.

"No one was injured, but two city of Miami fire trucks were damaged as crews fought the blaze.
Flames shot several feet into the air. The blaze started in an abandoned house in Overtown, on Northwest Second Avenue and 11th Street. The vacant structure was often used by homeless people seeking shelter, Local 10's Kellie Butler reported. "

Several feet into the air? Damn I better be careful next time I fire up the grill, the FD might be called in! A dramatic line that could have conveyed the action failed because someone dropped the word "hundred". Its kinda important to the story because the point of it was that two fire trucks were damaged by the fire...when the flames roared several hundred feet into the air. This is what news holds for us in the future because our corporate bean counters are hiring inexperienced wanna-be-on-teevees for $8 an hour and letting them run the shows. Ok Ill put away my soapbox for a while.

[News Is Broken]

Ok Ill put away my soapbox for a while.

INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM

Due to budget cuts, the soapbox is being sold on ebay. In order to retain maximum resale value, please refrain from using the soapbox, effective immediately. Anyone wanting to make soapbox speeches in the future may do so from the roof of the station (at least until we put the building on the market).

Thanks,
-Management

[ISTHISTHINGON?]

"....and while on the roof, keep in mind before you jump we've cancelled our Health Insurance Policy. So please go head first."
-MGT

[wx or not]

"and be sure to leave yourself in an unidentifiable state. We dropped the life insurance premiums last year."

[News Is Broken]

"The good news is that because of the recent layoffs and cutbacks it's now much easier to find a parking space, and the daily parking passes are very affordable."

[Meaty Urologist]

A dramatic line that could have conveyed the action failed because someone dropped the word "hundred". Its kinda important to the story because the point of it was that two fire trucks were damaged by the fire...when the flames roared several hundred feet into the air.

That doesn't make any sense. Were the fire trucks flying?

[Spike]

I saw the video (http://www.local10.com/news/18047734/detail.html?rss=mia&psp=news). The flames did not leap several hundred feet in the air. The word hundred was not dropped from the copy. The reporter said "several feet in the air" in her package. Granted, I would have characterized it as more than "several feet," but it certainly was not hundreds of feet.

The fire trucks were not damaged by flying through 300 foot flames. They were damaged when the wind shifted and blew the heat in their direction.

I think the problem here isn't the story, but the fact that you want to exaggerate the fire into something it isn't. Hyperbole has no place in newswriting. People lose respect for journalists when they fill their stories with unsubstantiated hype.

[Sigonfile]

Maybe it was an arson fire!

[Spike]

Maybe it was an arson fire!

Maybe the arsonist leapt hundreds of feet into the air.

[Roy Hobbs]

Maybe he was of English royalty and thus a Lord a-leaping.

[Spike]

Maybe he was of English royalty and thus a Lord a-leaping.

Not without his nine peers.

[wx or not]

Maybe he was of English royalty and thus a Lord a-leaping.
Not without his twelve pumpers pumping...

EDIT: Spike, I reopened the thread and saw your post earlier. Eerily similar, no?

[Sigonfile]

Did the structure burn "up" or "down"? That is the question!

Another one.......car wreck or car crash.....or auto accident?

Only a plane can wreck on the runway if it hasn't left the ground...everything else is a crash.:shifty: