M&K Consulting Services Inc.
If You Call Games Wars,
What Do You Do When You Get Real One?
(From a Posting on the American Press Institute
Internet Page, by Kenn Finkel — finkelm@aol.com)
Kenn Finkel, an editor for 33 years and now a newspaper consultant, is a longtime discussion leader for API. For more than 25 years, he has railed at editors about insensitivity and lack of perspective in the use of war terms and other tasteless hyperbole. He called on material in some of his handouts for this article, which he produced for the API Internet page a few days after leading several workshops at a seminar in September 2001.
Some 18 hours after
finishing a writing/editing workshop for editors at the American Press
Institute’s Copy Editing Boot Camp in
I had told the
workshop participants Monday that, if newspapers trivialized war in non-war
situations, they might be at a loss for words when they had to deal with a war.
These trivial references are clichés that cheapen newspapers. They are almost
always in bad taste, even the most innocuous ones.
Most important, they
damage credibility, which is the one thing that newspapers have going for them
as they compete with other so-called news media.
The example I had
used was a reference by a newspaper that had run a large headline over an
advance story on the October 2000 World Series between the Mets and the
Yankees. The headline?
War!
I said the paper had
lost credibility with headlines like that because, one day, it would have to
use that same one-word headline over a far more serious story. It didn’t occur
to me that I might be proved right only a day later.
Some editors will
tell you that readers understand the difference between a sports context and a
hard-news context — and that war references are harmless (even healthy)
hyperbole in sports stories. Those editors are deluding themselves.
If you refer to baseball games as wars, you don’t have much hyperbole to call
on when you get a real war.
I spent some time
with the API workshop participants on the subject of how the
In the 1970s, many
of us had relatives and friends who were losing their lives in
But
Until
There’s an example
that I use in my workshops, although I can’t remember the exact wording of the
headlines or which paper did this or when. In fact this example might be
apocryphal, although it does make the point. It involves an explosion in
Tel Aviv, a result of the constant Israeli/Palestinian fighting.
On page A-1, there
was this six-column, 72-point headline:
On page B-1 (the
sports front), there was this six-column, 72-point headline:
Bomb kills Packers in final
seconds
Where was the perspective at that paper?
On Sept. 10, most of
my API workshop participants discussed that example casually, but I got the
feeling that they didn’t think it was the highest item on their priority lists.
It moved up the next day.
Here are some examples of tasteless war cliché references that I have clipped from newspapers (in a few cases, they’re examples that colleagues have sent to me):
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A threat of war hangs over the nation’s capital.
(Referring to a hockey game between Washington and the New York Islanders.)
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It happened to western civilization at
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The Gators had suffered casualties by the dozen
— including several apparent cases of battle fatigue.
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. . . the same kind of
nuclear deterrence as
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Eighty-five of the yards came on a bomb to
Willie Gillespie in the third quarter.
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Rosburg made a
Kamikaze start in an effort to beat the turbocharged Ferraris to the first
turn.
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“It was a war out there,” coach
Ed Hayes said of his Bradford Eagles’ 6-0 victory over the Bartlett Panthers.
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The
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. . . the body count
was staggering.
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There will be a race within a race at Churchill
Downs Saturday: the battle between Eternal Prince and Spend a Buck for the
early lead in the Kentucky Derby. As in thermonuclear war, all the combatants
are likely to wind up as losers.
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War, Major Soccer League style, will continue at
The latest casualty report
indicates that the Wings will be able to suit up a full compliment of
gladiators after their numbers had dwindled to 13 in a losing battle Tuesday
night in
Able-bodied men are essential when facing the Comets, who have used muscle and physical intimidation in sweeping their three conflicts with the Wings this season. They used the same tactics to take a playoff series, three games to one, at the end of last season.
In those games, the Wings’ response to Comets aggression and pressure was only slightly stronger than Saddam Hussein’s response to the Allied blitz.
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All week long Marvin Hagler had been saying he
was preparing to fight a war against Thomas Hearns. Monday night Hagler dropped
the bomb. HALT — the Hagler Arms Limitation Talks — may begin as soon as the
world powers can agree on a meeting place.
(Later in the story) . . .
Referee Richard Steele stopped the war at
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Bodies were flying in the Laker-Clipper skirmish
last night — as if both teams had marched into a minefield.
After being repulsed for years like Cossacks charging a machine gun nest, the Clippers were good and ready to change dog tags with the Lakers. But, though they’ve lost some comrades to boot hill in this battle of a basketball season, the Lakers still run this neighborhood.
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(This ran in a
(From the same story:) ... the Aggies amazed the 39,500 fans by the ruthless way they went about their assassination plot.
(And more:) ... Senior Aggie quarterback Jim Keller drew the sniper’s job.
(And more:) ... Keller fired only three shots before he had the Longhorns apparently mortally wounded.
Here are some tasteless lighthearted references to guns and shooting people:
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(Quoting a coach on what sort of defense he
planned for the star player of a team that was coming to play the home team:) “I guess the only way to stop her is to put someone
in the stands with a rifle and shoot her.”
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Given two more days to consider Blackman’s doings,
Drexler claimed the best defense would be “to get a gun and shoot him.”
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. . . took his finger
off the trigger Sunday.
These are some offensive comparisons — and other bad taste:
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Tonight’s game to determine the NCAA
championship didn’t need another character to make it a thrilling show. But it
got one, a fanatic threatening to kill Patrick Ewing.
. . . There
will be hundreds of policemen, roaming the arena looking at fans. A national
television audience might think it’s viewing a remake of Black Sunday.
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. . .
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The last time the Cyclones got a bid, the German
army still had
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To say that
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If
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This 12-year-old example should have been the last word:
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Always on the lookout for great entertainment,
the Meadowlands marked the 50th anniversary of World War II Thursday with a
startlingly authentic reenactment. Playing the part of
Actually,
(Later) . .
. Irish coach
Lou Holtz, nicer and funnier than
(And later) . .
.
But the message does not always get out. This cutline
appeared
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Former Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway
throws a bomb against the former NFL All-Stars during a ‘Say Goodbye to Mile
High Stadium’ event Saturday night.
From Kenn Finkel, M&K
Consulting Services. Anyone wanting to
use this material in a public forum should contact Finkel
at FinkelM@aol.com .