Media Just Don't Understand

Will Smith rulez. Props and homage to Will. If you can't quite catch my meaning, just ask.

Down to business: my browser's(go Firefox!) home page is MyWay.com. When I opened it today, one of the "Top News" headlines was "Storm continues to Last Mexican Coastline". This, of course, set my right eyebrow raising in the sarcastic way that it often does when I see the media goof something up. I think I'm a bit OC about this, too. (No, I don't mean to imply that I'm like Peter Gallagher's character on a certain TV show. I mean OC as in OCD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.) I don't quite understand why I'm this way about goofs from the media. Maybe it's the way that they present themselves sometimes, omniscient lords gracing the lower masses with their wisdom and wit.

Anyway, below is the beginning of the page which appeared when I followed the link (http://apnews.myway.com//article/20051023/D8DDOL8G2.html):

"Storm Continues to Last Mexican Coastline

Oct 23, 9:05 AM (ET)

By WILL WEISSERT

CANCUN, Mexico (AP) - Hurricane Wilma drifted northward away from the Yucatan peninsula Sunday, but furious winds and rain were still punishing Mexico's Caribbean coastline, where the storm killed...."

Now, I was certain that the headline was meant to read: "Storm continues to LASH Mexican Coastline", and I wanted to immediately send a message to Mr. Weissert and ridicule him for mixing his words up in that headline. For a number of reasons I didn't do this. One is that there's no "Send a scathing e-mail to author" button on most news web pages. Another reason is that many headlines are not written by the author of the article, but rather another staffer at the outlet. (At my local paper they are masters of all that is CORNY. To wit: "U-M uncovers field of gleams" and "MSU heads south, losing to Northwestern". Need I say more?) Finally, being quite a self-doubter at times, I decided to look up the definition of "last" at yourDictionary.com and one definition gave me pause, at least for a little bit. It was a verb meaning to continue on, or to survive.

When you look at it one way it could have been meant to say that the hurricane is "surviving" its brush with the Yucatan peninsula, which- since it is still a hurricane- it is. On the other hand, it would mean that it continues to continue, which seems a bit deliberate, even for the media. Especially when you consider the opening sentence where the wind and rain were still "punishing" the coastline, it's pretty apparent that "lash" was the intended word. So, AP, congratulations. You've got a dolt on staff who's succeeded in feeding many of your subscribers (including ABC News) your mistakes.

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20051023/D8DDOL8G2.html
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1241616


On a completely separate note, here's one for the folks at Parents behaving badly. Oh, wait! They're on the case already! What WILL we think of next? And here I was worrying about my 8 year old daughter's attire (she's real skinny, so she rolls her sweat-pant waistband down. It's just that you can see her bloomers when she's got them rolled down far enough to hold the pants up.) Or am I being obtuse?