Rou

You know, I enjoy the internet. I can read it anytime of day and find out about just about anything at anytime. I enjoy getting my news on CNN or MSNBC all day long. In general I support doing just about anything 24 hours a day. All night diners, 24 hours supermarkets, the works.

However, I have a pet peeve. It's when the rush to provide something causes it to be done poorly or improperly.

Tonight's target? The Associated Press. A news story on an explosion.

Headline: 'Blast heard at U.S. Embassy in Athens'

Report:

ATHENS, Greece - Police cordoned off streets around the U.S. Embassy in Athens early Friday and state-run television, quoting witnesses, said there was an explosion inside.

That's it. Nothing else. Not even credit to an author that I can go bludgeon about the head with a baseball bat.

You see... that is not news. It's sentence. It's not even a very well written one. It's a tag line or an appetizer to actual news. Something to prepare you to hear more about the news. But in the rush to scoop a story, people put things like this up on the wire just so they can claim that they were the first on the scene.

I suppose there is some value to knowing that there was an explosion. But really, it's nothing more than a tease. Without expansion, it's not newsworthy IMO. Take 20 minutes, get some details, put together a 6 or 7 sentence story, and post that. Location, relative size, injury reports, police comment (even the expected 'no comment'). Give me something. Don't just type in the first thing you hear and press 'send'.

It's the difference between a news reporter and a glory hound.