Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Monday, November 28, 2005
WaPo Magazine Article
Sunday's Washington Post magazine cover story was an interesting and seemingly thoughtful piece on the health of streams in our region. Because it's an issue that I believe is important, I was disappointed to find some obvious errors. Sloppy writing and editing make me question every statement, even the true ones.
So what are these grave errors, you ask? Well, OK, maybe they're really trivial. But if little things are wrong, what does that say about the overall quality of the reporting?
- The country club was replacing its turf. To kill the old grass, and all of the weed spores in the ground, groundskeepers had been applying a powerful herbicide-fumigant called Basamid G.
Weeds do NOT grow from spores, but plant diseases may be spread that way. BTW, Basamid G sounds like very nasty stuff - a granular soil sterilant. - "We've got some red-shouldered hawks . . . those birds you hear now are white-footed sparrows and some junkoes, I think. ..."
White-footed sparrows? I'm pretty sure that isn't what the interpretive naturalist actually said. Most likely white-throated sparrows. Easily looked up in any field guide or online. (We have white-footed mice in this area, but he apparently said it was a bird sound.) I've never been able to decide if the plural of junco is juncos or juncoes, but I'm very sure it isn't junkoes. Again, quite easy to look up, but nobody bothered.
2 Comments:
What is WITH the Post in the last year or so? I'm no great grammarian
or ultra-anal nitpicker, but it's
hard to get through a single issue
anymore without these flat-out
errors of fact. Maybe they're dis-tracted by the l'affair Bernstein
& other dustups, but accuracy has
definitely taken a backseat of late. I'm glad to see I'm not the
only one with this response.
Long-time fan of Cultivated, by
the way--at least your 'standards'
remain high.
Theo (Charlottesville)
Thanks for the compliment, Theo. I do admit to nit-picky tendencies, but I try not to focus on that too much.
I wanted to tell another WaPo story, but as it's from many years ago, I thought it might be piling on. But it's too good to pass up. About 17 or so years ago, when Canada Geese populations were just becoming a problem, the Post ran an article about the "ducks" on a local pond and how they were such a nuisance. It featured several quotes from nearby residents complaing about the "ducks". Throughout the entire story, these large birds were refered to as "ducks". Accompanying the article was a nice clear picture of the problem: Canada Geese.
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