Reuters Blogs

Good, Bad, and Ugly

Reader reaction to Reuters news

July 7th, 2008

More than we can bare?

Posted by: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Editor

pensioners-200.jpgPensioners bare brunt of British inflation

STANDARDS!!!!! Pensioners BEAR brunt of inflation.

Johnny

Yes. We corrected

(File photo)

June 11th, 2008

Negro spirituals

Posted by: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Editor

Chuck Berry won’t sing for ‘Johnny’ in US election

spirituals-180.jpg ”In the ’50s there were certain places we couldn’t ride on the bus,” Berry said. “And now there is a possibility of a black man being in White House. Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, free at last,” he said, quoting the words of a Negro spiritual song famously invoked by assassinated civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King Jr.

I can only hope that the reporter and editors on this story are Brazilian and therefore unfamiliar with how archaic and offensive the term “Negro” is considered here in the U.S.  Seriously.

Kate

We did not use the term “Negro,” we used the term “Negro spiritual,” which is still in wide use. You can go to negrospiritual.com, you may order numerous recordings of Negro spirituals from amazon.com, and so on. And, in a forum which attracts vocal and varied opinions about our news content daily, I believe yours was the only e-mail we received about this subject: GBU Editor

May 30th, 2008

I had a uncle…

Posted by: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Editor

Obama admits reference to Auschwitz was wrong  

obama-140.jpg“I had an uncle who was … part of the first American troops to go into Auschwitz and liberate the concentration camps,” Obama said.  

Obama said, “A uncle…” not “An uncle.” You have your quote wrong. Obama made a gramatical error that you are correcting. He is all over the radio and TV saying the statement incorrectly. Why aren’t you quoting him the way he said it?

J.F.

We do not intentionally clean up grammatical errors for anybody. Various news organizations reported the quote with “a uncle” or “an uncle” - some used both versions. You can see here, as the reader points out, Obama did say “a uncle.”

REUTERS photo by Rick Wilking

May 15th, 2008

Lost in translation

Posted by: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Editor

 portuguese-400.jpg

Your Brazilian site has a wrong automatic translator. This month is MAY, and your Brazilian website translates”may” as a word that in Brazil means: “MAY I go to the bathroom?” In English, this words are the same, but not in Portuguese. 

Renato

Your Brazilian website is incorrectly translating dates from English.  The date “Monday, May 12 2008″ is currently being translated as “segunda-feira, 12 de pode de 2008″, which mistranslates “May” (”maio” in Portuguese) to “pode”, which means “may” in the sense of “can, is able to”.

Fabio

Understandably, lots of people noticed that one. We’ve fixed the problem: GBU Editor

April 29th, 2008

Hitting out at a headline

Posted by: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Editor

Obama hits out at Clinton for negative campaign 

obama-180.jpgHits out… who ever heard of such a thing?  I guess you will save the term “LASHES OUT” for the Republican candidate?

Michael

What does “hits out” mean? I’ve never used “hits out” in my life and I have never heard anyone use it. 

B.E.

It’s not terribly obscure. My dictionary includes the following as one definition for the word hit: “to assail effectively and sharply (often fol. by out): The speech hits out at warmongering.” GBU Editor

REUTERS photo by Frank Polich 

April 29th, 2008

Warning shots?

Posted by: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Editor

Ship hired by US military fires warning shots in Gulf  

In March, another U.S. military-chartered ship preparing to cross the Suez Canal fired warning shots at a small boat, killing an Egyptian on board.  

Warning shots? You do not get killed by warning shots. Why do you allow your writers to merely repeat what the military’s public relations officers say? It’s no wonder the Bush administration was able to drag us into war in Iraq as easily as they did. 

Alex

It does seem that when someone is killed, the distinction between warning shots and just plain shooting at the boat is pretty difficult to spot: GBU Editor

April 22nd, 2008

Ambiguous headline

Posted by: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Editor

U.S. forces free AP photographer in Iraq after 2 yrs

release-180.jpgBAGHDAD (Reuters) - A Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer working for the Associated Press in Iraq was freed from U.S. military custody on Wednesday after being held without charge for two years, the news agency said.

Your headline should have read, “U.S. forces release AP photographer in Iraq after 2 years.” Funny how this small change makes what really happen so much clearer. Was this “Spin” to obscure the real facts, or an oversight?

Bill S. An oversight, and you make a fair point. Our original headline was ambiguous, and readers could have concluded that someone else was holding the photographer until U.S. forces rescued him. We subsequently issued the story with the headline you suggested: GBU Editor

REUTERS photo by Andrea Comas

April 21st, 2008

Another meaning…

Posted by: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Editor

Young Pennsylvania voters take a shine to Obama

obama-180.jpgI think a news headline about taking a “shine” to a man of color is considered in poor taste, at best.

Mark S.

Please reseach Black folklore and historical use of the term “Shine” that your use in the same sentence with Sen Obama. I think you will find it, if not inappropriate, at least a pretty odd choice of words.

Tony R. Several readers pointed this out to us. There are vast numbers of people who do not know the slang meaning of the word: “Disparaging and offensive. A black person.”

When our editors became aware of it, the headline was changed: GBU Editor

REUTERS photo by Tim Shaffer

April 21st, 2008

Halting vs braking?

Posted by: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Editor

Bush climate plan said too little, too late  

On Wednesday, President George W. Bush unveiled a plan to halt the growth of U.S. emissions by 2025, toughening a previous goal of braking the growth of emissions by 2012. The United States and China are the top emitters. 

I don’t understand how allowing oneself an extra 13 years to achieve what appears to be the same goal is “toughening” it. Is this a typo, or am I misreading it?

Curt H.

Several readers were confused by this. The intended distinction was between HALTING and BRAKING - that is, between stopping and merely slowing - but it doesn’t seem to have been clear enough: GBU Editor

April 20th, 2008

Scowling at our pronunciation

Posted by: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Editor

rowling-300.jpgRegarding your video report on the NYC court case, Rowling is pronounced like ‘rolling’, or ‘bowling’, not ‘rao-ling’.

S.Y.S.

Yes, we did this in two separate video reports this week. We’re trying to see that it doesn’t happen again; GBU Editor