Why spelling matters -- Jeopardy! version

[Gator]

The other day, a cousin of mine got a little ticked off at me because I was picking apart her Facebook status, which was laden with typos. "Sorry, it's just Facebook," she wrote back.

I feel that Facebook and other social media outlets are making us dumber because nobody seems to care much about spelling and grammar. That being said, I hope this little whiny ***** learned his lesson.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/04/newton-thomas-hurley-jeopardy-cheated_n_3705048.html

 

[StaggerLee]

Our paper posted this story on our website, asking if the kid should have still received credit for a correct answer. It was a resounding yes in favor of the kid being able to spell the answer wrong and still get credit.

This country is going to ****.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Fox News is what's making us dumber.

 

[albert77]

Actually, I think the reason they're raising such a stink about it is that in the past Jeopardy! has accepted misspelled answers, unless correct spelling is specifically called for, when the right answer is given.

If that has, in fact, been the case, then they have a good reason to be pissed.

 

[britwrit]

Even if he'd spelled it correctly, he still would have lost. I blame the parents for heaping too much pressure on him. You don't get tense and wound up as a 8th grader without some help.

 

[StaggerLee]

It wouldn't have mattered anyway. The person who was in the lead got the answer right, so it's a moot point. He wouldn't have won anyway. That fact seems to get lost in the story.

It didn't cost him a Jeopardy championship. It only bruised his little ego. Get over it, kid. I got over spelling condominium wrong for my fifth-grade spelling bee championship.

 

[ifilus]

“It wasn’t my decision; it was the judges’,” said Trebek via telephone Friday. “I don’t mind being accountable if it’s something I have done, but it kind of bothers me to take a lot of flak for something I haven’t done. I must be getting thin-skinned in my old age.

“After the show I said [to the judges], 'I can understand it, but it’s a little rough.' I thought they may have ruled a little harshly, but they ruled according to the rules of the game. They made a valid point, and I can understand that.”

According to Trebek, contestants are thoroughly briefed before taping about the rules.

“The rules are very simple. Normally we don’t penalize anybody for misspelling. I mean if he had spelled emancipation, p-a-y-s-h-u-n, we probably would have accepted it. But if you add a syllable through your spelling mistake, or delete a syllable, then the judges will rule against you.”

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-alex-trebek-speaks-out-on-jeopardy-kid-controversy-20130809,0,3151934.story

 

[old_tony]

Fox News is what's making us dumber.

The truth makes us dumber?

 

[old_tony]

Actually, I think the reason they're raising such a stink about it is that in the past Jeopardy! has accepted misspelled answers, unless correct spelling is specifically called for, when the right answer is given.

If that has, in fact, been the case, then they have a good reason to be pissed.

Another part that has me wondering is the fact that there is no spelling in the first 60 answers in Jeopardy! since all those answers are spoken ... and they'll give credit for a lot of mispronounced words or just last names of a person. And how often does someone get credit for a correct Final Jeopardy! answer when their penmanship is such that you can't tell if the answer is spelled correctly or not.

I'm all for pursuit of correct spelling, but as we've seen by the number of scribbled out answers on Final Jeopardy! it appears they can't erase once they write something. All the above things being the case, I think they were being overly persnickety.

 

[Charlie Brown]

Fox News is what's making us dumber.

The truth makes us dumber?

Yes, as you just unwittingly proved.

 

[Gator]

In this day and age, wouldn't it be better if Jeopardy! had a keyboard device for Final Jeopardy!? You would still get the spelling errors, but it would be much easier to read.

And I agree that it wouldn't have mattered, so why make a big deal of it? When I first watched the video, I thought he lost because of it. Then I watched it again and realized he would have lost by either $54K or $60. Now he just comes off as a whiny kid.

 

[Double J]

I felt bad for the kid because he got embarrassed on national TV over a simple spelling mistake. Now I'm laughing that he and his parents have this delusion that he was somehow "cheated," and are continuing to embarrass themselves in the national media.

 

[KYSportsWriter]

He would've only won the $2,000 anyway. The winning kid, who's from my hometown, had $30,000-something heading into Final Jeopardy.

 

[heyabbott]