Which way is up?

"State burden 44th lowest in nation," reads a headline on Page B1 in the Chattanooga Times Free Press dated Thursday, 28 April 2005.
Not very good news for the overburdened workers and producers of Tennessee.
Or is it?
Hmmmm.
The story is not from a TFP staff writer, but from one Duncan Mansfield of the Associated Press, datelined Knoxville. (Why is it still called a "dateline" when no date is given?)
In the first paragraph, one can read "... but Tennesseans continue to pay some of the lowest taxes in the country ..."
"Some of the lowest"? But "44th lowest"?
In the second paragraph, Mansfield writes, "On a per-person basis, Tennesseans paid $1,616 in state taxes in 2004. That ranks 44th lowest among the states and $408 less than the national average -- despite a sales tax increase in 2003."
Confused yet? Obviously so are the poor copy editors at the Times Free Press.
A University of Tennessee professor is quoted as saying "... Tennessee has been, is and remains a very low-tax state."
But "very" would certainly rank higher than 44th.
Say, could it be ...? Yes, I think the very poor copy editors meant "44th highest," statistically correct but less enticing.
Perhaps the head -- and story -- should have read "sixth lowest."
Let's see if the paper runs any kind of correction in the Friday edition.

Editorial on freedom, Sunday, 17 April 2005

Not quite unique, but still unusual, the Chattanooga Times Free Press, which resulted from merging two papers, carries two different and differing editorial pages.
Titled "Freedom even to make bad choices," this particular Free Press editorial deserves special mention and attention:
"One of the few things worse than the horribly unhealthful decision to smoke is the effort by some to take away from businesses the freedom to decide whether to permit smoking.
"There should be no confusion about smoking itself. It has been shown repeatedly by both rigorous scientific studies and the daily experience of smokers to be devastatingly harmful to smokers' health -- not to mention expensive.
"But the fact is, tobacco is a legal product that some people, however unwisely, choose to use. So long as it remains legal, it is not the place of government to dictate to private businesses whether they may allow smoking on their premises.
"The Agriculture Committee of the Tennessee House of Representatives has appropriately beaten back, at least for now, a bill that would bar smoking in most enclosed public places.
"Supporters said it would protect public health. But it would try to achieve that proper aim by improperly trampling the liberty of restaurants and other facilities that chose to permit smoking.
"We wish all Americans would voluntarily decide not to smoke. But until that day comes, government should not assume the role of nanny."
The author deserves high praise for the use of the word "unhealthful," which most newspaper writers these days, including headline writers of the Times Free Press, don't seem to know and instead misuse "healthy."
But please remember these words. Please remember the objection to government's being a nanny.
There will be more on this later.

Another day to live in infamy

"Paying for IRS cheaters" reads the head on an article syndicated by the loathesome Cox News Service.
The author is Bob Dart, and the article was published in the April 15 (familiar date?) edition of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
The subhead says, "Honest taxpayers are subsidizing those who are evading the law, IRS says."
At least the paper attributes the comment, to the even more loathesome IRS, rather than printing it as fact.
Still, the article uses such phrases as "Americans who suspect they are paying more than their fair share of federal income taxes are right ..."
The dishonesty comes from assuming there is something properly called a "fair share" of federal income taxes.
The dishonesty comes from accepting the federal government's alleged needs to be of more account than the right of the wage earner to keep his money and use it to buy food or clothing or shelter.
The dishonesty comes from allowing a false premise that government deserves some particular chunk of money from the workers and producers even before the workers and producers can fulfill the needs of themselves and their families, and that it is "evaders" and "cheaters" who are the cause of the financial anguish to the workers and producers, rather than the tax system and insane spending of the government.
Frederic Bastiat already wrote about one aspect of this phenomenon some 160 years ago. When the glazier gets a job to replace the baker's window, the gathering mob agrees the economy is getting a boost because the glazier gets some money he might not have been paid otherwise.
What is ignored is that the baker might well have had other intentions in mind for his money, that his freedom of choice is taken from him by the vandal who broke his window.
Newspaper writers in general, and Cox writers in particular, have little or, more likely, no knowledge of economics and certainly none of Bastiat.
If you are paying "more than your fair share," then blame properly belongs to the tax collectors -- and to the academics and journalists who aid and abet -- not to those people who find ways to keep their own money.

Don't worry about school failure

Surely most of us, at least over the age of mumble-mumble, learned not to define in the following terms.
In the April 15, 2005, edition of the Chattanooga Times Free Press (a day that was taxing in many ways), a "staff writer," who shall not be identified (and embarrassed) here, wrote a column on blogging and one particular blogger.
The headline read, "Blogging links world to local politics," and the subhead was, "Signal Mountain resident's entry on Daily Kos blog draws widespread attention."
Probably all of us have heard of Daily Kos, and maybe some of us have even tried to read it more than once. I, though, never heard of the blogger mentioned, but that's another story entirely.
My point is this: "Blogging, a growing medium in the online world, is when Web users post and respond to journal entries on a variety of topics."
"Blogging ... is when ..."???
I remember being taught way back in mumble-mumble, when I was a literal babe ... well, certainly pre-pubescent, anyway, that no literate person defines something as "when."
This is, I fear, a fair sample of what passes for writing in the Times Free Press.
Worse, it is a fair sample of what passes for copy editing in the Times Free Press.
So, to explain the title of this entry, don't worry if your child isn't learning good grammar or how to write clearly or proper phraseology. That child might grow up -- or not -- and be able to make a living as a "journalist."
THEN you should worry.

Not true

Despite reports to the contrary, it is not true that Times Free Press food editor Anne Braly asked the owner of a fancy Chattanooga restaurant the secret of a delicious meal.
And the owner did not tell her, "We chefs are just like reporters in one respect: We never reveal our sauces."

Correction (fluid)

Recently the publisher of the Times Free Press, Tom Griscom, wrote in his weekly column that, though the paper really tries hard to avoid mistakes, gosh darn it, mistakes still happen.
He recounted one, and then said he wishes he had a barrel of "white-out."
I suppose we all know what he meant, but, alas, it is another mistake.
The best-known brand of typewriter correction fluid is "Wite-Out" (usually shown in graphics as "Wite•Out"), a registered trademark of the Bic company.
Seems the Times Free Press cannot get even its mea culpas right.

Dictionary gone?

In the Times Free Press classified section, category 191 is "Money to Loan."
I realize the classified sections of newspapers all across the country don't have either editors or proofreaders -- but they should. (I remember working at one paper in South Georgia where the computer guru on staff shook his head sadly one day and said of the young woman in charge of the classified ads, "She broke the spell checker.")
In proper grammar and usage, the heading should be "Money To Lend."
"Loan" is a noun.
"To Lend" is the infinitive, so the "to" should be "To."
And, to the best of my memory, that error was pointed out to the paper some 50 years ago, yet has continued to this day, 22 April 2005.
Any bets as to whether it will ever be corrected?

Shapes of things to come

Someone I know well, now a former journalist, said he gave up being an atheist because, if there were no Hell, "Where would we put the editors?"
Any of us who have written letters to the editor know what he means.
Here is an example. In early February, 2005, I wrote a whimsical, tongue-in-cheek pontification to the Chattanooga (Tennessee) Times Free Press. Everything was spelled correctly, all the punctuation was just as it should be, and the grammar and style were perfect for what was intended.

Editor, Times Free Press

Dear Editor,
In your edition of Saturday last, you published a story on the new steeple for Ridgeview Baptist Church.
Your reporter – and editors – said the parcel of land upon which the church sits is “pie shaped.”
That is wrong.
The piece of land in question is more or less triangle shaped.
Pie are round.
Oh, I know some scientists and mathematicians go around saying “Pie are square,” but real people know – and I mean KNOW, know from real life, not from merely theoretical musings – that pie are round.
Now I will admit that cobbler can be square, but PIE are round.
Possibly what your reporter – and editors – meant was the parcel is shaped like a “piece of pie,” and perhaps the preferred term is “wedge shaped.”
Yours sincerely,
Professor Michael Morrison

Below is the moronic version the "news"paper published:

In your edition last Saturday, you published a story on the new steeple for Ridgeview Baptist Church. Your reporter and editors said the parcel of land upon which the church sits is “pie-shaped.” That is wrong.
The piece of land in question is more or less triangle-shaped. Pies are round. Oh, I know some scientists and mathematicians go around saying “Pies are square,” but real people know – and I mean know from real life, not from merely theoretical musings – that pies are round.
Now I will admit that cobbler can be square, but pies are round. Possibly what your reporter and editors meant was the parcel is shaped like a “piece of pie,” and perhaps the preferred term is “wedge-shaped.”

"News" paper?

Chattanooga is not really a small country town with no educated people.
But one might well get that impression from reading its "news" paper, the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Come visit often as we analyze and dissect what that "news" paper does and how it does it.