Back at Ball State, I had a professor who proudly declared he would fail anyone who used the term “tragic” in a news script. We called him Professor Carlin because he looked somewhat like George Carlin.
If you have to tell people something is tragic, he explained, it wasn’t really tragic. The tragic-itude (It’s possible he did not use that term, although I have won the Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in writing.) should come from your explanation of events.
“The tragic end to the 1994 Major League Baseball season…” doesn’t actually provide information. It’s lazy and just tries to force people to feel ways about things.
“The Montreal Expos, having never won the World Series before, had the best record in Major League Baseball when the season ended” tells people why 1994 was tragic.
He also had a beef with “allegedly.”
“The man did not allegedly rob a convenience store,” he would explain. “The store was definitely robbed. Police say that man did it.”
You attribute that information to the source. He’s not definitely a robber, but he is a suspect. He’s not charged with “alleged robbery,” he’s charged with “robbery.”
I bring all this up I watched some of WGN’s NewsNation this week. It’s kind of sad WGN saw an untapped market in news that was just presented as news, not news that was presented with analysis or opinions. [Professor Carlin is now fuming. “You can’t be ‘kind of’ sad. Either you’re sad or you’re not sad. Also, I don’t look somewhat like George Carlin. Either I look like George Carlin or I don’t.”]
I was intrigued: the anchors even nailed the old school, uncomfortable, unscripted banter [look at all the adjectives I just used!]. At one point, they sang the theme from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air together after a story about the reunion show. They talked about how Aunt Viv hadn’t signed on. I googled to find out out the drama between Will Smith and the original Aunt Viv is ongoing. And I learned something.
In news that could be viewed by some as slightly more substantial, I also learned the fires in California have grape farmers concerned about smoke taint. Smoke taint. Prior to the show, I might have expected wildfires would give grapes a rich, smokey flavor [or “flava,” if you will].
Journalism should not be sensational. Reporters who succeed don’t do the job because they want to be “on TV.”
I hope this succeeds. Journalism has struggled with that push to sensationalize stories and scare people. NewsNation might be awkward to watch as everyone gets to know each other and pat each other on the back, declaring frequently how unbiased they are, but if WGN can draw an audience looking for general information instead of an “expert” to enforce what they already believe, we might not want someone to “Gag me with a spoon!” when we turn it on. [That is an actual note Professor Carlin wrote in the margin of a news script I had written.]
And Professor Carlin taught me the skills of journalism. For instance, I’m texting two other Ball State classmates now, and through research [a reporter asks, which was actually written in the margin of a different paper by a different professor], we were able to figure out Professor Carlin’s name is, technically, Jim Culbertson, and he appears to have retired, but his name was on the 2008 graduation program, which is still posted on the Ball State website.
Through stalking [or “journalism,” if you will], one associate, Reid, who gets upset when referred to as an associate and not by name, found a picture and questioned whether Culbertson really looks like George Carlin at all. But I’m not one to editorialize. “18 year old Scaia says he looks like George Carlin,” I would explain with attribution.
I also do not believe he actually gave students an “F” if they used “alleged” or “tragic,” either. I suspect he just wrote something angry in the margin and told you to rewrite it.
Even now, though, I’ll write “Police say Ol’ So-and-So robbed the train” instead of “Ol’ So-and-So allegedly committed the tragic train robbery.” I may have forgotten Professor Carlin’s name, but I remembered the lesson.
