A recent post about a newscaster's gaffe prompted me to seek out this classic clip. It was first posted on YouTube almost five years ago, but is worth viewing as an example of the importance of punctuation - specifically, that a period should signify a full stop.
The text as it was written for the newscaster:
“Good evening, I’m Ken Bastida; Dana is off tonight.
He was murdered and set on fire while celebrating his birthday. The body of Jimmy Frezshi was found by firefighters on Monroe Street…"
The result as it was read off the teleprompter:
“Good evening, I’m Ken Bastida. Dana is off tonight; he was murdered and set on fire while celebrating his birthday.
The body of Jimmy Frezshi was found by firefighters on Monroe Street…"
The text as it was written for the newscaster:
“Good evening, I’m Ken Bastida; Dana is off tonight.
He was murdered and set on fire while celebrating his birthday. The body of Jimmy Frezshi was found by firefighters on Monroe Street…"
The result as it was read off the teleprompter:
“Good evening, I’m Ken Bastida. Dana is off tonight; he was murdered and set on fire while celebrating his birthday.
The body of Jimmy Frezshi was found by firefighters on Monroe Street…"
"I'm Ron Burgundy?"
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Even though this guy is kind of dumb, he's not totally at blame. Even with the intended pause, that's an awkward way to introduce that story, and that's an awkward story to introduce the news.
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Should be: "A grim story from San Jose tonight. The body of Jimmy Frezshi was found by firefighters on Monroe Street…"
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Poorly written even with the wrong punctuation.
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I prefer the classic "It's 11 o'clock Greenwich. Meantime here is the news."
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"I was helping my uncle Jack, off a horse" is very different without the pause in place.
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