The Reader’s Guide to Journalists (Cont’d)
Rule No. 39: Anything that has been common knowledge for less than three hours is breaking news.
The Reader’s Guide to Journalists (Cont’d)
Rule No. 35: A survey’s rigor is inversely proportional to its “wow” factor.
Police Blotter of the Day: Police arrest protesters protesting a bill to give police new powers against protesters
“The bill, which passed the Upper House early this morning, will extend police powers to move on protesters who are blocking buildings or who are suspected of turning violent.”
Full story (ABC News Australia)
Police Blotter of the Day: Suspect eats hundreds of dollars in cash
Leosvel Cordova Parrado (Monroe County Sheriff’s Office)
In — where else? — Florida:
The victim told deputies they were at a party earlier and Parrado became angry and demanded they return home. She said once they were at home, he pushed her around in their residence and the two of them struggled over her wallet, which he took from her by force. The wallet contained $750 in cash. …
Parrado was handcuffed and placed in a patrol car. As Sgt. Slough was driving to the detention center in Marathon, he heard a strange noise in the back of his car. When he looked in his rearview mirror, he saw Parrado with his mouth full of cash. He was literally chewing — and choking on — the cash he had stolen from his girlfriend.
Sgt. Slough pulled over and attempted to recover the money Parrado was eating, but when he counted the remaining cash he found $277 missing from the whole amount the girlfriend said he stole. Some of the money was found in his underwear and deputies think that is where he hid it prior to eating it.
The Reader’s Guide to Journalists (Cont’d.)
Rule No. 34: Sources we like say “going to” and “want to.” Sources we don’t like say “gonna” and “wanna.”
11 Buzzfeed Listicles of 11 Things
So, since everybody says Buzzfeed has figured it out, I figured I’d get in on the game:
• 11 Deceptively Upbeat Trailers For Feel-Bad Movies
• 11 Times Mariah Carey Looked Like A Goddess In The “#Beautiful” Video
• 11 Musicians Perfectly Summed Up By GIFs
• 11 Facts That Show How Hard Moms Work
• 11 Flaw-Free GIFs From Selena Gomez’s Flaw-Free New Music Video
• The 11 Wisest Things Anyone Ever Said About Drinking
• 11 Reasons Hippos Are The Most Awesome Animals Of All Time
• 11 Greatest Sitcom Moms Of The ’80s
• 11 Duckface Photos Fixed By Adding Spaghetti
• 11 Photos Of Alexander Skarsgard That Will Make Your Ovaries Explode
Grammar Day: ‘I would advise that you comply with our language laws’
It’s National Grammar Day. It’s also the 19th anniversary of the death of the great comedian John Candy. To celebrate, here’s a clip from “Canadian Bacon” that brings them together.
And sometimes you do a story just for the headline
An 18-year-old Florida woman was only slightly injured when she was shot by her friend’s oven, police said.
Yes. An oven. She was trying to cook waffles and didn’t know her friend was storing ammunition in the oven. So we got to write this totally straightforward headline:
Woman shot by oven while trying to cook waffles
Life on general assignment
In the new world at NBC News, I’m now doing general assignment after many years covering various beats. That yields a certain variety to one’s work week.
At 1 o’clock this morning, I was hunched over a spreadsheet calculating word-frequency counts for President Obama’s State of the Union address. Ten hours later, I was writing this:
One of the busiest interstates in the U.S. remained closed Wednesday, hours after a semi-trailer transporting French vanilla coffee creamer overturned in Phoenix, coating more than 150 feet of the highway with a white slick of delicious-smelling traffic hazard.
You never know what life on GA will bring next.
Grab your coffee mug: French vanilla creamer closes busy Arizona interstate (NBC News)
Sometimes, you do a story just for the picture
(Jody Taylor/Sixty5 Media via NBC San Diego)
Driver stuck in midair after car rams California clinic (NBC News)
Alex Johnson - Journalist at Large 