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dom was convicted Thursday of rape, drawing cheers in the courtroom.” Give that correspondent the cut glass flyswatter! The award for May is richly deserved.
Last month the AP’s Miami bureau covered the Coast Guard’s seizure of a ship, registered in St. Vincent, that was bound for Mexico. “The Ship was seized for smuggling with the permission of the govemement of St. Vincent.” Pretty generous government is St. Vincent.
This next item came several years ago from the AP bureau in Fort Lauderdale. The feature story dealt with cruise ships: “A wedding aboard a luxurious cruise boat can run from $3,000 to $20,000, if someone wants to go overboard.” Pretty exciting wedding, that one.
In April the AP Bureau in Norfolk, Va., began a story in this mystifying fashion: “A woman who chased down and recovered her husband’s stolen car says the experience left her with dueling emotions.” Way to go! She wanted to fight the thieves. Bring out sabers for two.
I shouldn’t pick on the dear old Associated Press. Its correspondents file a million words a day, more or less, and newspapers couldn’t live without the AP’s wire report. Nobody’s perfect. Lot of others foul up.
Several citations have come in that involve “Areas.” The Miami Herald filed a story from Washington about sexual assaults on Capital Hill. Devon Anderson, who works for Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, ahd a complaint: A male lobbyist who visited Levin’s office “felt free to pinch her buttocks in the reception area.”
Careful writers would never have written these mangled sentences. Trouble is, too many writers aren’t careful enough.
The Writer's Art. C1993
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