Well-versed as I am in tracking down ghosts, gremlins and
imps, let me share my discovery of a new barely discernible
invader.
A few of my friends who are fond of the English language, have
joined me in recommending that before a graduate of a journalism college be
given a job-- particularly if he or she is 35 or younger-- such prospective
employee in the communications industry should successfully
complete a rigid course in English grammar and be given a free copy
of Strunk & White's Elements of Style
!
Just now I shared a "breaking" story with a very cultured
professional artist (NOT a rapper) and she could not for the life of her grasp
whether the subject of the story was in sympathy with a group when he resigned
his position---OR if he had quit because he disagreed with
them.
The reporting was that bad. The writing (or exposition if you
will) was worse than the reporting. I realized that I had reacted to message
board comment on the story rather than to the story as it was
presented.
Here we have a situation where the weight and value of the
report lay in the person's reason for his resignation. That WAS the story, and
THAT was missing.
*(It was about a man who had always wanted to
have a trained voice so that he could sing the Star-Spangled Banner before a
large audience. That was his heart's desire and he realized it two years ago
when he was hired by the
Baltimore Ravens to sing the Anthem at
every home game. The explosion of the big social justice war mixing anti-police bias with anti-patriotic fervor tore this man's heart--- and his dream-- to
shreds.)*
Only an awkward writer without a vestige of
sensitivity or sentiment would not understand the singer's reaction.
But I stumbled on another scary hypothesis. If the K-12
government skools are dumbing down our children, is it possible that part of the
educationooid agenda is to produce high school graduates more poorly equipped
than
GED-earners ? Are they so deaf to language that even my old city editor Sam Cox couldn't scare Ned's First Reader literacy into them ??
GED-earners ? Are they so deaf to language that even my old city editor Sam Cox couldn't scare Ned's First Reader literacy into them ??
If this is the case, then that explains why so many of the younger "centrist" and so-called "conservative" writers and TV anchors were reportedly
tutored or home schooled.
They don't have space or time for garbage and slanted
conspiracies.
It is a horrible thing to think. But I'm stuck with it until
some trustworthy soul disabuses me.
Sam Cox didn't go to Harvard or Princeton. But he could quote
Strunk and White until your eyes rolled.
