News under false present tenses
This is a pendantic copywriting and grammatical rant. People wanting considered analysis or deep thinking should move on. You have been warned.
I just read this Reuters article titled, Microsoft launches messenger on Xbox 360. It sounds cool -- XBox 360 users will be able to use Microsoft Messenger. I wonder if I should tell both people I know that own XBox 360s; maybe they can talk to each other.
But when I read the actual article, I find the the small print that belies the title I read.
What Microsoft has announced is an intent to launch a service in a month. So why does the title use present tense when the event it describes won't happen for a month?
I wouldn't mind this phenomenon if it were a one-time oversight. But this is a recurring theme for reporters who want to appear they have gotten a scoop on Microsoft, and Microsoft encourages them to do it. For example, according to press releases provided by Microsoft, Microsoft "launched" its Zune music player on September 14, 2006. When could you actually buy one? November 14, two months later.
I will note, in the interest of accurate reporting, other companies do this too. Just a week ago, EMI's press release read, "EMI Music launches DRM-free superior sound quality downloads". Ummm. No they didn't; those downloads won't be available until May.
But while Microsoft has earned my undying enmity for honing this practice to a fine and repeatable art, I direct my ire to otherwise professional reporters for falling for the tactic and reprinting press release titles in the false tense as news. I'd have no problem with the story if the title read, "Microsoft To Launch Messenger on XBox 360" because we'd know when the event was going to happen. But writing the title in the present tense and revealing in the story that it actually was meant to be future tense is just a waste of my time. If I were a tyrant king, I'd wave my foppish hand, and palace guards would lop off the heads of title tense offenders. As it is, I'm just annoyed and can only condemn the perpetrators to an eternity of listening to Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips To Clean Up Your Writing until they get it right. And they deserve both a curse and a pox on their houses too.
See, I warned you it was a rant.
I just read this Reuters article titled, Microsoft launches messenger on Xbox 360. It sounds cool -- XBox 360 users will be able to use Microsoft Messenger. I wonder if I should tell both people I know that own XBox 360s; maybe they can talk to each other.
But when I read the actual article, I find the the small print that belies the title I read.
Beginning the week of May 7, the Xbox 360 spring update will provide Xbox 360 owners worldwide with access to Windows Live Messenger features, broadening the communication options on the Xbox LIVE social network.
What Microsoft has announced is an intent to launch a service in a month. So why does the title use present tense when the event it describes won't happen for a month?
I wouldn't mind this phenomenon if it were a one-time oversight. But this is a recurring theme for reporters who want to appear they have gotten a scoop on Microsoft, and Microsoft encourages them to do it. For example, according to press releases provided by Microsoft, Microsoft "launched" its Zune music player on September 14, 2006. When could you actually buy one? November 14, two months later.
I will note, in the interest of accurate reporting, other companies do this too. Just a week ago, EMI's press release read, "EMI Music launches DRM-free superior sound quality downloads". Ummm. No they didn't; those downloads won't be available until May.
But while Microsoft has earned my undying enmity for honing this practice to a fine and repeatable art, I direct my ire to otherwise professional reporters for falling for the tactic and reprinting press release titles in the false tense as news. I'd have no problem with the story if the title read, "Microsoft To Launch Messenger on XBox 360" because we'd know when the event was going to happen. But writing the title in the present tense and revealing in the story that it actually was meant to be future tense is just a waste of my time. If I were a tyrant king, I'd wave my foppish hand, and palace guards would lop off the heads of title tense offenders. As it is, I'm just annoyed and can only condemn the perpetrators to an eternity of listening to Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips To Clean Up Your Writing until they get it right. And they deserve both a curse and a pox on their houses too.
See, I warned you it was a rant.
Technorati Tags: Grammar, Microsoft, Press release, Reuters, Reporting, Tense
posted by Carl Howe at
4:27 PM
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