Bad Language in Journalism.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/living/MensHealth/menshealth.html[/]

(This is my very first attempted link, and I really hope it works.)

I read this article at abcnews.com, and I wrote them the following letter:

I’m writing about the article entitled “The Route of All Evil”, which appears in the Men’s Health section and was written by
Christian Millman. Specifically, I’d like to point out that the author has the language skills usually associated with twelve year
olds who have watched too many episodes of Beavis and Butthead. Actually, that may be a bit generous. I have an eight year old stepdaughter who has a MUCH better command of the language. The author uses the phrase “pie hole” not once, but twice to describe the orifice commonly known as the mouth. Also, the term “half-assed” appears near the end of the article. Was there really no other phrase that would work?

ABC News could be described as one of the largest news agencies in America, and frankly, I’m worried. I suggest that
perhaps the company should buy a big box of those handy little pocket dictionaries, just in case you ever want to write something that grown-ups can take seriously.

Looking back, the letter does sound a lot more brusque than I intended. I know my language skills aren’t anything spectacular, but I’m not getting paid for it, either. Am I irrationally annoyed?

Neenah

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I think you were a bit more upset than you needed to be.

The article, overall, is written well enough, with generally correct grammar, syntax, spelling, and even some big words.

I suspect that the slang used (pretty much at the end of the article) is in keeping with the opening of the article. “Farmers, cowboys and other sensible men always examine a horse’s mouth before buying the animal.” The tone is one of attempting to link the author and the reader to “real men” (men who work the land, not effete office types). This sets the context for the article’s subject that might be considered “not masculine” by some men: flossing.

Was I impressed by the brilliant wit and style of the article? No.
Was it a heavy-handed, poorly written piece of tripe? Not really.

It was probably targeted nicely to a perceived audience. The only way to know whether it worked would be to poll that audience.

Tom~

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For those interested…

www.abcnews.go.com/sections/living/MensHealth/menshealth.html