# Why are chyrons so often full of errors? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 13, 2020, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chyrons-so-often-full-of-errors/851697 "2020-04-13T14:57:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chyrons-so-often-full-of-errors/851697/1 "2020-04-13T14:57:28Z")
I notice it mostly with the local news, but any chyrons or banners along the bottom of the screen seem prone to misspellings, bad grammar, and typos. Is there some reason for this? ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chyrons-so-often-full-of-errors/851697/2 "2020-04-13T16:15:11Z")
[Hanlon’s Razor](https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor): Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity or incompetence. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chyrons-so-often-full-of-errors/851697/3 "2020-04-13T16:57:24Z")
I have no first hand knowledge, but they tend to be breaking news, so I imagine that they are generated on a tight deadline a lot of time for proof reading. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chyrons-so-often-full-of-errors/851697/4 "2020-04-13T17:01:09Z")
Happens a lot on weekends and holidays when the interns are working. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chyrons-so-often-full-of-errors/851697/5 "2020-04-13T17:13:00Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > I have no first hand knowledge, but they tend to be breaking news, so I imagine that they are generated on a tight deadline a lot of time for proof reading. should have been “without a lot of time for proof reading.” I’m just going to pretend I was being ironic on purpose.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chyrons-so-often-full-of-errors/851697/6 "2020-04-13T17:25:43Z")
That’s how I took it, **Buck**. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chyrons-so-often-full-of-errors/851697/7 "2020-04-13T20:32:44Z")
Most of the time you can put it down to the fact that typing up the chyron is the absolute last priority on the to-do list for the reporter, the newscast producer, and/or the intern all of whom have to do 15 other things to put the newscast together. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chyrons-so-often-full-of-errors/851697/8 "2020-04-13T20:52:24Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > I have no first hand knowledge, but they tend to be breaking news, so I imagine that they are generated on a tight deadline a lot of time for proof reading. > [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Most of the time you can put it down to the fact that typing up the chyron is the absolute last priority on the to-do list for the reporter, the newscast producer, and/or the intern all of whom have to do 15 other things to put the newscast together. These are correct. They are written in haste and put on the air at the last minute, without multiple levels of review by people who can give them a lot of attention. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chyrons-so-often-full-of-errors/851697/9 "2020-04-14T02:07:28Z")
Which news sources are most error-prone with chyrons? Would an AI find disturbing patterns? I can visualize a Find The Flubs game with players racking-up points for every discovery. But it would be hacked, of course. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chyrons-so-often-full-of-errors/851697/10 "2020-04-14T09:58:04Z")
“chyrons” a new word for me - thank you. I assumed that they were produced by speech-to-text software. I use Dragon to produce text with and while it is quite good, it does make mistakes. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chyrons-so-often-full-of-errors/851697/11 "2020-04-14T12:40:16Z")
> [@RioRico](#): > > Which news sources are most error-prone with chyrons? Would an AI find disturbing patterns? I’ve noticed that even on the same channel, weekend broadcasts are worse than during the week. That’s a big part of why I think it is simply a manpower problem. ---
**Author:** ![EdelweissPirate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@EdelweissPirate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdelweissPirate)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chyrons-so-often-full-of-errors/851697/12 "2020-04-14T14:36:30Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > “chyrons” a new word for me - thank you. > > I assumed that they were produced by speech-to-text software. I use Dragon to produce text with and while it is quite good, it does make mistakes. I think you might be confusing Chyron text with text “crawls” or maybe even closed captioning. Chyron text typically appears to identify someone being interviewed or something like that. “Chyron” is the brand name of the company that makes the devices that put that text on the screen. My dad was a TV reporter; I saw my first Chyron machine in about 1985 at WTTG in Washington, DC. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chyrons-so-often-full-of-errors/851697/13 "2020-04-14T14:49:24Z")
> [@EdelweissPirate](#): > > I think you might be confusing Chyron text with text “crawls” or maybe even closed captioning. Chyron text typically appears to identify someone being interviewed or something like that. I understand that closed captioning is broadcast separately from the picture, and as unformatted text, and that’s why it will look very different from one television to another. But the crawls (snippets of other news unrelated to the main on-screen story) and the identification of the person being interviewed are both parts of the main video being broadcast. As I see it, the only real differences are their locations on the screen, and that one is stationary while the other is moving. Both have fonts and colors and other formatting that ts chosen by the director or whomever. Are they really made by different types of software? ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chyrons-so-often-full-of-errors/851697/14 "2020-04-14T15:06:32Z")
a while back during a snowstorm a local station let people put their own messages on the air without editing. As you might guess students had a field day with jokes until they shut it down. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chyrons-so-often-full-of-errors/851697/15 "2020-04-14T15:55:54Z")
> [@EdelweissPirate](#): > > I think you might be confusing Chyron text with text “crawls” or maybe even closed captioning. Chyron text typically appears to identify someone being interviewed or something like that. > > “Chyron” is the brand name of the company that makes the devices that put that text on the screen. My dad was a TV reporter; I saw my first Chyron machine in about 1985 at WTTG in Washington, DC. For what it’s worth, when I worked in TV in the early 1990s, we called it “C.G.” for “character generation,” not “Chyrons.” I don’t think I ever noticed that brand being used. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chyrons-so-often-full-of-errors/851697/16 "2020-04-14T16:14:13Z")
> [@EdelweissPirate](#): > > My dad was a TV reporter; I saw my first Chyron machine in about 1985 at WTTG in Washington, DC. My dad’s friend was an engineer at WTTG. Went there several times in the 60s. I was surprised how small the news set was. All the electronics backstage were really cool looking, might have been what got me heading in that direction to begin with.