Killing kittens?

[Frank_Ridgeway]

Romenesko links to a story about a California paper, as a joke, changing "holding a kitten" to "strangling a kitten" in an AP story:

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/02/28/corrections/11_00_232_27_08.txt

Romenesko writes:

The AP piece said an LA councilman "held a kitten at a City Hall news conference" while a pet sterilization ordinance was signed. Two staffers at the North County Times changed "held" to "strangled." Editor Kent Davy tells readers: "We have fired the editor who initiated the unfortunate 'joke.' And we have suspended a second editor who failed to keep the error out of print."

 

[Ace]

Wow. Leave the bad jokes to SportsJournalists.com, people.

 

[Some Guy]

Obviously, this "joke" wasn't meant to see the light of day.

Just goes to reinforce the old adage: Don't put something on your computer screen you wouldn't want to see in print.

 

[fishwrapper]

Is that really an old adage? Kind of wordy, isn't it?

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

Is that really an old adage? Kind of wordy, isn't it?

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

 

[zebracoy]

I read the title and thought, "What does pleasuring yourself have to do with journalism?"

 

[Armchair_QB]

Johnny Smith, Jimmy Jones, Some ****er, Tommy White, Jerry Jackson...

 

[goalmouth]

Roasted Nuts.

 

[fishwrapper]

Roasted Nuts.

I know that is a site favorite.
But, I love this one. On some levels, it is worse than Roasted Nuts. It was in the book, "The Tabloid From Hell." The cops found a decapitated head and discovered it had AIDS. With fears what they were, it led to this gem:

 

[funky_mountain]

isn't an adage old by the nature of its definition? is there such a thing as a new adage?

 

[fishwrapper]

Look before you leap.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

You can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish.

 

[MartinEnigmatica]

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines 'adage' as "a saying often in metaphorical form that embodies a common observation." Thursday afternoon, the common observation at Smalltown High was Jim Goodplayer making three-pointer after three-pointer. So you can best believe his Smalltown teammates weren't going to switch horses mid-stream. [/Terrible lede]

Seriously, though, adages don't have to be old. Proverbs, perhaps.

 

[Some Guy]

Is that really an old adage? Kind of wordy, isn't it?

The guy handing out adages that day was kind of verbose.

 

[fishwrapper]

The only bad publicity is an obit.